It was any other Wednesday. I was futzing around on the internet and minding my own business when my trusty gmail notification blip went off and I scurried to my Gmail tab to see what online pharmacy was launching penis pills at me today, but to my surprise, it was the screening exchange instead. Somehow, I was selected to receive a ticket to see a super-early screening of the film adaptation of Mark Millar's Kick-Ass. And at the ArcLight in Hollywood no less! Not only was this a movie that I really wanted to see, but it was at literally the nicest theater you could go to in the area. Hooray!
Fast Forward to the day of, I show up super early and there's already a huge line. After waiting in line for a little over an hour and a half I got in and sat down and waited some more. Once everyone was let in and seated and the VIP's had their seats, one of the editors (if memory serves it was Eddie Hamilton) got up and explained that none of the special effects were done yet and all the music was temporary. This kinda made me sad cuz i didn't want to get cheated out of seeing the whole movie and miss out on the finished experience, but I was still happy to be sitting there for free when I didn't have anything else to do. And after a lot more boring waiting (man, I really should have brought a book or something, they don't let you bring in your phones so I couldn't text / call anyone) the movie started.
Jesus. This movie completely lives up to it's name. It's wraps up insane levels of ridiculousness and realism into a really fun package that you can't help but enjoy. I was skeptical of this movie at first simply because of how Wanted turned out, but this movie is made completely in the spirit of the comics (which aren't even done yet, haha). Everything I was kind of concerned about (mostly Nicolas Cage) was totally awesome. I don't want to sound too eager when reviewing this movie, but I really didn't know what to expect from this movie and it was really good from where I was sitting. By the end of the movie the whole crowd, including myself, were cheering, whooping and hollering. That's really saying something.
The characters are all awesome. Dave, the main character, (played by Aaron Johnson) is just like he is in the comics. A completely sarcastic improbable realist (haha, I know that doesn't make sense on paper, but he's a realistic guy who walks around as a costumed avenger). You completely sympathize with him as he goes through life in New York being pushed around by thugs and ignored by the girl he loves. He's had enough and he's going to stand up and make an effort to change the world he lives in. His friends are also really well cast. There's the inconsequential third guy, and Marty (played by Clark Duke, who's basically a much less-often laid transplant of his character in Sex Drive). They really help set the backdrop for Dave as a main character, because they play the guys you most likely hung out with in High School. A couple nerdy guys like yourself who constantly mess with you and give you crap because they're your buddies and they're supposed to.
Then There's Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Jesus Christ, these two were awesome. Big Daddy is played by Nicolas Cage and Hit Girl is played by Chloe Moretz. Both are amazing. Nicolas Cage plays his ridiculous character so well. As a Dad he's lovingly psychotic and oddly old-fashioned in his acting style, but it completely works to show that while he and his daughter go out and kill bad guys, they do love each other and function as a family on some weird level. The funniest thing is seeing him operate as Big Daddy. He kicks ass like a combination of the Dark Knight Batman, The Punisher (MAX of course), and talks like Adam West Batman, which just drives the whole thing home in a giant ball of awesome. And then there's Hit Girl. It's ridiculous that this movie has driven me to devoutly love a 10 year old girl, but it totally has. She's the perfect combination of out-of-costume cute little girl and then complete ass-kicking force to be reckoned with when in costume. You'll know what I'm talking about when you see the movie (you should, by the way). One minute she's daddy's little girl and the next she's calling a room full of gang bangers 'cunts' and then slicing them all up with swords.
There are a lot of other great characters in the film that are fun to see in this crazy story, gangsters, gang-bangers, high school chicks, and Christopher Mintz-McLuvin as Red Mist. The movie's just chock full of funny scenes, Awesome fights, and amazingly ridiculous story. It's really funny to compare and contrast the insane over-the-top insane fight scense featuring Big Daddy and Hit Girl to Kick-Ass, who basically is just a regular guy with some sticks who's trying to make a difference. The movie definitely handles the whacky idea of kids dressing up and trying to be heroes well. Whenever something goes right, 2 things go wrong to keep you grounded. I can't imagine a way this story could have been handled better, to be honest.
Lastly, as mentioned before, I was told that the music was all temporary and stollen from other places and the effect shots weren't done. Well, the effect shots all looked 100% fine to me (aside from a 3D comic backstory explaining Big Daddy and Hit Girl's backstory) and the music was actually awesome, because it was from a bunch of other awesome movies. I"m sure they'll make a great score for this movie, but I wish you had the chance to see the movie with music from The Prodigy, The Dark Knight, Superman, Batman, The Fountain, and all the other movies it uses movies from. The whole story is set around people who read comics, love them, and want to bring some of that heroism into the real world, so having music from other movies works so well. It's like they couldn't think of anything better themselves except for the same source material they're drawing from anyway. And I love The Prodigy (seeing him have his first true hero moment defending a guy from 3 Gang-Members while everyone looks and doesn't help while hearing The Prodigy's 'Omen' was really awesome, it totally drove the chaos and adrenaline of the scene home).
So...if you haven't figured it out yet I'll boil it all down for you. This is a movie for nerds and non-nerds alike (although nerds might identify a liiiiiiiittle more with it). It's funny. It's violent as hell. It's awesome. I'll have get you excited and yelling for more. When it comes out, go see it. It's going to Kick-Ass.
(P.S. I'm aware of how stupid that last line was. STFU.)
Looking like the low rent Batman to Specials low rent Superman, this has Woody Harrelson already kicked ass as Tallahasse in Zombieland last year.
