Kick Ass Review

[Westside Steve]

Kick Ass

Lionsgate

R 106 min

 

 

Well, first the shameless plug.

Since I wasted so much time since October, I’ve had to bust my ass in the studio nearly every day so as to hopefully get my upcoming solo CD finished. The working title is Limestone Cowboy (referencing the geological makeup of the Lake Erie coast and the islands) and it will be available this summer if all goes well. I hope you’ll like it.

 

OK so I’d spent an entire day trying to finish a guitar track (that Alex Bevan could have done in one take while packing pickles) and needed a break. I decided on some light entertainment as a respite.

The trailers gave the impression that KICK ASS was to be your basic teen nerd makes good story of some shmuck that lucks into an adventure and becomes cool.

Well, it is actually. But here’s the deal: This wasn’t the typical Saturday morning fare I was expecting. May we suggest you see it before you read this just so you can experience the same surprise?

First of all, having paid little attention, I didn’t know Nick Cage was a co-star, but he’s a secondary character.

Second I had no idea there was an R rating, but that became clear by about the fifteenth F bomb. (Sorry Willis, no frontal nudity)

Third, people get killed; both good guys and bad guys, and lots of them.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t exactly a bloodbath, but more like John Hughes meets Quentin Tarantino.

Dave (Aaron Johnson) is a regular 17 year old comic book fan that dreams about being a super hero and winning the heart of the hot girl that occupies the next locker. To accentuate that fantasy, he buys himself a silly looking costume and under the pseudonym “Kick Ass” becomes an internet sensation when he accidentally breaks up a violent crime in front of a dozen or so cell phone cameras.

Cage is “Big Daddy” is a widower turned vigilante who has vowed to destroy the crime syndicate responsible for his wife’s death. From his home arsenal he’s trained his 11-year-old daughter, “Hit Girl”(played by Chloe Grace Moretz who steals every scene she’s in), to be as dangerous as any ninja warrior.

Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong) is the crime boss who, along with his weasly son Chris, wants to kill them all.

As for the film there aren’t any slow spots and while it’s defiantly violent it’s never the kind that makes you shudder. It’s serious but not too serious; it’s still an action comedy with plenty of both.

A-

 

WSS

 

westsidesteve@aol.com