Film Strip

My wife an I went to see Kick-Ass last Friday at the Alamo Draft House. It was between Kick-Ass, The Losers, and Date Night, and surprisingly enough, it didn’t take much to get my wife to agree to Kick-Ass.

I had reservations because as a huge comic book fan, I took my wife to go see Watchmen with me last year, and she hated it. Oddly enough, she hated it because of how violent it was. And not simply because it was violent but because of all the bone breaking and the sounds of bones breaking. (It didn’t help that we saw it on a huge IMAX with super surround sound.) I thought this was odd at first because she does like Kill Bill, and that movie is incredibly violent. Apparently she can handle slashing, cutting, and guns with her over-the-top violence, but not punching and bone-breaking. How was I supposed to know?

So Kick-Ass is out, and while I’m not following the comic regularly, I have read two issues and flipped through most of the others and noticed that they were some of the most violent comics I had ever seen. It is called “Kick-Ass.” While I wanted to see the movie, I also wanted to save myself from once again taking her to a movie she wouldn’t like. And even after fair warning of possible over the top violence similar to Watchmen, she still wanted to go.

Surprisingly enough, the violence was much more Kill Bill than Watchmen, and she was okay. I guess when the violence is presented in static comic panels, it appears more gruesome than shown in half-second increments in a motion picture. The cool thing is, she wasn’t just okay with the movie, but she really liked it.

And so did I.

The storyline of the movie strays somewhat from the comic (of course), but it’s still really good. Chloe Moretz, who played Hit Girl, stole the show. I don’t think I’ve ever been more impressed with a child actor. Most filmmakers will tell you that working with kids and animals are the hardest things to do. Often times, I feel that a crummy kid actor annoying me through a movie really ruins it. But not Chloe. She was awesome. She was foul-mouthed, violent, and incredibly sweet and cute. There are actors out there that get paid millions per movie that can’t show the range of character that she showed in Kick-Ass. Aside from Nicholas Cage, who did a good job as well, and McLovin, otherwise known as Christopher Mintz-Plasse, the rest of the cast are relative unkowns, but I liked it that way. I’d rather watch some kid I’ve never heard of play Kick-Ass, than Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 3.

But enough about the acting that was better than expected. The story was fun. Like I said, after reading the comic, the comic is irreverent of course, but downright violent too. I expected the movie to be a bit more gritty, but there was a lot of fun and humor. I’ve mentioned Kill Bill a bunch here, but the feel of the movie was somewhat Tarantino-esque in that it knows where it comes from, comics, and it knows how to mock it and be part of it at the same time. It’s hard to explain without you having seen the movie and have a familiarity with the comic.

Long story short, I liked the acting, the action, the story, and the feel of the movie. Since this is the first movie I’ve given any kind of review on, I’m not yet sure if I want to give it stars or thumbs up/down, or what. I hate to give an all-encompassing rating because that’s not fair. This movie isn’t for everyone. For instance, I wouldn’t suggest my parents or my niece and nephew see it. Heck, I wouldn’t even suggest some of my peers see it. But if you’re a comic fan, definitely see it. If you like action movies, esspecially Quentin Tarantino and Arnold Shwarzenegger movies, this is your movie.

Would I see it again in the theater? No. Would I rent it? Maybe. Would I watch it on a movie channel. Definitely. Would I buy the Blu-Ray. No, but I’m being much more selective with my movie-buying these days. But Kick-Ass did most certainly kick ass.