Kick-Ass 2 (2013) Review

Purchase from Amazon: DVD - Blu-Ray Pros: +Solid action +Chloe Moretz's performance Cons: -Bad writing -Unfunny, tasteless humor -Lackluster direction Other films by Jeff Wadlow: Cry_Wolf, Never Back Down Similar films: Kick-Ass, Super, Defendor

Director: Jeff Wadlow Stars: Chloe Moretz, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jim Carrey Genre: Superhero, Action, Black Comedy Sequel to 2010's Kick-Ass, based on the comic of the same name by Mark Millar, with artwork by John Romita Jr. Does this sequel live up to the standard set by the first one? Continuing where the last left off: Red Mist, now renamed The Mother Fucker, wants to kill Kick-Ass, who is being trained by Hit-Girl, who has retired her costume and is strictly coaching. With a group of other "superheroes," Kick-Ass joins a team called Justice Forever, who must inevitably do battle with the supervillain team, the Toxic Mega Cunts. The plot follows the comic closely enough. Some of the things from the hyper-violent, tasteless comic have been toned down here: specifically the violence and gore. Quite frankly, I'm not at all a fan of the comics, so the more the film adaptation differs, the better. The only reason I liked the first Kick-Ass movie was because of its differences compared to the source material: whereas the comic tried to be deep and edgy and failed, the movie tried to be over-the-top and campy and succeeded. Does this sequel manage to surpass its source material as well? Well, not really, and if it does, it's not by much. This film tends to be just as mindless, tasteless, and unfun as the comic was. The rape "joke" with The Mother Fucker and Nigh-Bitch in here is dumb, pointless, and most of all unfunny. It may not be as explicit as the scene was in the comic, but it's equally vulgar. Doubled with the fact that Night-Bitch as a character exists solely so this rape joke can be made. Think about it. They changed Night-Bitch from the comics and gave her a weird costumed sexual relationship with Kick-Ass. That's her entire character. There's no more depth to her than that. She exists to have sex with Kick-Ass and to allow rape jokes. Unfortunately, Kick-Ass 2 has many scenes like this that are just plain awful. Perhaps one of the most nonsensical scenes is the one with Lyndsy Fonseca as Katie, Kick-Ass's girlfriend from the last movie. I guess the script had no use for her and wanted to get rid of her so what takes place is one of the most ludicrous and illogical scenes of all-time. Out of nowhere she accuses Dave (Kick-Ass) of cheating on her with Mindy (Hit-Girl), without even giving him time to explain. Didn't she know he was Kick-Ass? In the last film he told her. Why is she acting like she doesn't know? And then, to top it off, she implies that she's been cheating on him this whole time. What!? That makes absolutely no sense given the prior context of this character. Some of the sloppiest writing I've ever witnessed. Oh, and then there's a penis joke. There's a disgusting diarrhea/vomit scene, which is very likely the worst thing I've ever had the displeasure to watch in a movie (I find it even worse that they had to use CGI for shit and vomit, which are like the two easiest practical effects ever). The scene with Chuck Liddell is absolutely cringe-worthy; the whole thing feels so forced and the humor in that scene just doesn't work at all. The boy band scene is almost equally cringe-worthy (I found out only afterwards that the boy band was actually a real band, called Union J). There's a Justin Bieber joke thrown in here also, which just screams "hey, look, we're hip too, guys!" The immodest dance scene (with a 17 year old girl, I might remind) was perhaps the very best example in the history of everything of something being completely and utterly pointless and tasteless. None of that stuff is funny. There's no wit or sophistication or cleverness in there. It's vile, unnecessary, and lacks point. Far too many of the jokes in here failed miserably. It seems as if the film has a very twisted view of what it means to be edgy and cool, and in the end they achieve neither, instead only being forced and ineloquent. Crass and tactless even. The film is as delusional as its characters. The first film may have relied a lot on referential humor, but at least it was mostly funny and well crafted. A lot of people complain about the coming-of-age high school scenes with Hit-Girl. While I didn't particularly like these scenes (especially the aforementioned ones), I didn't find them to be as bad as a lot of the other scenes in the film. At times I was thankful to have a break from sloppy rape jokes and Chuck Liddell, even if the alternative was to watch a girl go through high school. The action in the movie is pretty good. Not as great or well choreographed as the action in the first film, but it was okay, despite some occasional cinematography hiccups that failed to compliment the action. The Mother Russia scenes(s) was really great. The van scene was, even if cliched, pretty good also. The violence wasn't quite as over-the-top and tongue-in-cheek as it was in the first one, which is a big disappointment, but it has its moments. I'm glad we got to see a lot of Hit-Girl in here, she's enjoyable in and out of costume, even if she is little more than a little girl shouting profanities, and delivers some of the film's best action. Justice Forever and Toxic Mega Cunts were huge letdowns--especially their final battle, which could have been way more epic in scale. In the comic it took place in the middle of Times Square; in here it takes place in an empty warehouse. If there's one thing the comic did better it was to give off an apocalyptic, this-is-it vibe, which the movie failed to capture even slightly. The soundtrack, though not bad, is very disappointing compared to the wonderful soundtrack in the first film. Chloe Moretz gives a show-stealing performance here. She carries a lot of the film. McLovin, ehem, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, does a solid job as well. Jim Carrey could have been better, plus he was underused. Everyone else was forgettable. A pretty awful movie all in all. Jeff Wadlow's directing and screenwriting can't even come close to the first one's. The bad scenes far outweigh the good ones, and even the things that this film does well had already been done better in the first film. I'd pass on this one; I can hardly believe I made it all the way through this.

Kick-Ass (2010) Review

Purchase from Amazon: DVD - Blu-Ray - Stream Other films by Matthew Vaughn: Layer Cake, Stardust, X-Men: First Class Similar films: Kick-Ass 2, Super, Defendor, Watchmen

Director: Matthew Vaughn Stars: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Nicolas Cage, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Lyndsy Fonseca Genre: Superhero, Action, Comedy Based on the comic book of the same name written by Mark Millar with illustrations by John Romita Jr., Kick-Ass is one of the greatest and most enjoyable superhero movies I have ever watched. A certain question comes to high-schooler Dave Lizewski: "why has no one tried to be a superhero before?" It's a question that nags at him until he decides to do it himself. Donning a mask and costume, Dave becomes Kick-Ass, a lackluster crime fighter and a teenager who has no idea what he's getting himself in to. There's plenty of noticeable differences from the comics, but this was actually a good thing in my opinion, as I found the comic to be incredibly mediocre. The comic set up some great potential, but it utterly failed in living up to that potential and ended up being completely mindless, misguided, and convoluted. The film, however, managed to break free from its source material's pretensions and mediocrity. The violence in the film is over-the-top rather than pseudo-realistic and gritty. The action is incredibly enjoyable, well choreographed, and executed to perfection. The violence definitely translates better on screen than it did on page. After watching, you won't soon forget Hit-Girl massacring an entire hallway of armed thugs in well-utilized slow-motion. It's stylish, operatic action that celebrates its exaggerated violence. And it's awesome. The action is over-the-top in the vein of silver age superhero comics; it embraces its comic book nature and takes advantage of its superhero camp. There's plenty of references to catch in here, whether they be visual, vocal, or stylistic, from Spider-Man to Tim Burton's Batman to Hong-Kong action movies. There's a lot; probably more than a single person can ever catch in a single viewing. Admittedly, like in the comics, a lot of the humor revolves around/relies on the referential nature of the film, which may understandably seem cheap to some, but it's done pretty well and most of the time is actually fairly hilarious. Pardon the pun, but the soundtrack is kick ass. It exploits songs we're all familiar with to great effect, like Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" or the Banana Splits song as covered by The Dickies. There's some excellent, almost satirical, use of Ennio Morricone. Then there's some songs in here that may surprise you; personally, for me, hearing "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us" by Sparks, one of my favorite bands, was a great surprise. Some fantastic tracks that amplify the on-screen action well and make the film all the more enjoyable. There's some top-notch acting to be witnessed in Kick-Ass. Chloe Moretz as Hit-Girl does phenomenal as the foul-mouthed killing machine. Not only does a lot of the film's action involve Hit-Girl, but so does a lot of its humor, and Moretz delivers a great performance on both fronts. The always enjoyable Nicolas Cage is on top of his game here as well, playing Big Daddy, Hit-Girl's off-beat and crazy father. With an Adam West-like performance and a voice that is surely a nod at The Dark Knight, Cage brings plenty of great humor and action to the film as well and is unbelievably enjoyable to watch. Christopher Mintz-Plasse, still known to most as McLovin, does a good job here also as the spoiled and snobby rich kid in a superhero costume. Kick-Ass just may be my favorite superhero movie made so far, which surprised me being that I wasn't a big fan of the comics. What's genius about it is that I think while fans of the comic will be satisfied, it also removes a lot of the things non-fans didn't like, making it potentially enjoyable to non-fans of the comic as well. It's a loving homage to comic books and action movies, and it's both a good comic book movie and a good action movie. Though not perfect, it's still a must see for anyone even mildly interested.