Kick-Ass - Jeremy Levan

I had big expectations for this movie and I am still not sure (after a night of sleeping on it) if they were met or not.

I think the question: why are there not super heroes? is a good and hilarious question. This question is the premise for the movie. From this question there is a lot of cool stuff that an ensuing story can do. You can dip into classic comic book lore and create a character that goes from nerd to hero. Have a group of nerd friends that toe the line between keeping the story going and adding some funny lines. You can develop the characters that have real vengeance and take the movie to the surreal level. You can give shout-outs to a lot of classic stories and make fun of them at the same time. You can basically just have a lot of fun with this question and that is what this movie is--fun.

I love Nick Cage! He was the absolute perfect choice to play 'Big Daddy'. Sure, he makes movies that are claimed to be lame but they are all lame movies that I love and watch over and over. I mean check out this list of just great movies: Raising Arizona, Con Air, Gone in 60 Seconds, Adaptation, Grindhouse, Face Off, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Rumble Fish, Honeymoon in Vegas, Kiss of Death, Leaving Las Vegas, The (freaking) Rock, City of Angels, Snake Eyes, Adaptation!, Matchstick Men, National Treasure. And these are only the ones I can think of off the top of my head. He takes a lot of crap in Hollywood, I think. In my opinion, he should rule Hollywood. He probably won't ever be invited to do the Newsweek Oscar Roundtable, at least unless he some how fools everyone with a Blindside-esque performance, but until then he'll have to remain one of the best of all time in my book only.

So back to this movie, he plays the real super hero that kicks ass way more than Kick-Ass (Aaron Johnson) does. He is cast as this guy that has been blinded by revenge and has possibly pulled his child, Hit-Girl, into a life of vigilante crime. But he is just so dang likeable, and the culminating events of the movie pay tribute to the rightful elevated status of super heroes, human or not. They get a pass card for all things that dictate societal norms. And maybe this is what the premise question begs. In a world where everyone is normal and boring, why do only athletes and movie stars live the perceived life of super heroes? On this level, I think my expectations for this movie were met. I really wanted the movie to be about this question and then to answer with a bunch of blow-em-up, shoot-em-up scenes. And these scenes were great.

The only thing that kept me from getting super jacked about this movie is that it dragged along for a while. Aaron Johnson plays Kick-Ass and sifting through his transformation into a super hero took a while. Christopher Mintz-Plasse's evolution into Red-Mist also took a while, but when it did, it was really fun. Clark Duke also seems to be getting his deserved parts. Ever since he and Michael Cera made their on-line episodes about life in L.A. I though he was funnier than Cera. He wasn't that great in Hot Tub Time Machine but I thought he was really good in this.

Overall, I think I really liked this movie. I think I'll like it more the next time I see it. Definitely check it out though if you want to see a movie that is fun and not The Hurtlocker or Avatar.