"The three assholes, laying into one guy while everybody else watches? And you wanna know what's wrong with me? Yeah, I'd rather die... so bring it on!"
While people might have the same nightmare over and over again, walking through the same dream is more of a rarity. Sitting through a second helping of Kick-Ass in the comfort of my couch was such an experience: rare and awesome.
As a critic, I’m in the habit of trying to shine a light on the technical aspects of a film, the quantitative stuff, and as such, those are the kinds of things that tend to stick with me the most acutely when I’m going to write about it. Keeping track of exactly how a movie made me feel is a different animal altogether, it’s hard enough to remember the intensity of any emotions you might have felt at any given time, and when you couple that with the sheer volume of movies I cram into my day to day and keeping an emotional catalogue becomes near impossible. For the most part, the degree to which I enjoy a movie goes up to a certain level and then they all kind of blend together.
“…even more poignant than the first time out.”
Kick-Ass touched so many nerves from my own childhood and ideologies, along with my nerdula-oblongata when I saw it the first time. The second time out, hanging by myself on a Thursday morning, my 4-month-old daughter asleep in her mechanical swing – asleep to the degree that I could crank the volume to a respectable level, I was floored all over again by Matthew Vaughn’s brilliant reinterpretation of Millar & Romita’s ultra-violent masterpiece. Chloe Moretz was just as entertaining as ever (still the best thing about this movie), but the first fight in front of the donut shop, Big Daddy taking out punks at the lumberyard, and glimpses of my old Toronto stomping grounds were maybe even more poignant than the first time out.
Seeing it in high-def didn’t hurt either – the colours totally popped, the blood especially. And along with that came all the features on the bluray, including a great piece on the comic book that not only has great clips from Mark Millar (who is like the anti-Alan Moore if you ask me) but also stuff from John Romita Jr. and the rest of the artistic team. I’ve only started going through the Making Of’s, but so far they seem really thorough and talk to just about everyone. It’s not Maximum Movie Mode, but it’s still rich in content. It’s even got a digital copy along with it, which I’ve been totally rocking on the bus to and from work. A great package altogether, no doubt.
Question: There are three four actors in this movie that I recognise from Layer Cake, and one object/thing. Can you name ‘em all?
It's so much of a Keeper, Steve actually paid money for it.
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Loved Kick Ass and I’m planning to see it again soon on DVD.
It’s totally worth it. I haven’t been excited about adding something to my collection like this for a long time… My favourite movie theatre is in the movie too, the Paramount off Queen St. in Toronto (I don’t think that’s what it’s called anymore).
I do believe the films share a car… need to resee KAss before I can comment on the actors.
They do indeed share a car… And who is the last one seen driving that car in Layer Cake?
Is it in the ending? Or is it earlier? I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday man.
DAMN! Is it the nephew at the end or is it… crap. I give up.
My hint (sort of) is that he isn’t credited in either film… How’s that for not helpful?
Normally I don’t buy DVDs as I go to cinema at least once a week…but for this movie I’ll make an exception. It’s been some time since I had so much fun with a movie. The big final action sequence starring “Bad reputation” is the icing on the cake. I was constantly smiling during that.
I never watched Layer Cake but by sheer search madness I found three actors appearing in both movies. Do you mean Tamer Hassan, Dexter Fletcher and Jason Flemyng?
Oh snap! That makes 4, I totally forgot about Jason Flemyng! Well done!
Yeah, Hit Girl got all the best tracks for her action scenes, the music in the Razul beating is wicked fun. For Bad Reputation, I loved how the music was all operatic out of Spaghetti Western when she was taking out dudes outside the elevator and then dove right into the Joan Jett. Grrrl power!
Thanks a lot…well to be precise it was all hail Wikipedia, but I promise to watch Layer Cake in the future.
And yeah, I totally forgot about the sound transition moment to Bad Reputation. For a second I was “WTF?”, then the action totally kicked in, then the music started totally rolling and then I was totally grinning. Okay…I’m off to Amazon for a moment…
Right on, Gunther! Do it! Do it! Do it!
And yes, Layer Cake is a must watch, along with Stardust. Matthew Vaughn is a rare gem.
Is KICK ASS on DVD now? I didn’t even realize. Are the extras any good?
The bonus features actually are really good. The featurette on the comic book was especially good. There’s all the trailers and a series on the making of the movie. It’s all good.
I watched Kick-Ass just after a day at work. Although I don’t consider it as a masterpiece, I was so glad to see a film that pokes fun at the society’s fascination for the art of being a vigilante. Other than that, the film succeeded in impressing me with its action scenes and making me laugh.
As for Chloe Moretz, she definitely is the best part of the film. Despite being so young, she truly manages to display a genuine killer instinct.
I liked its ability to drop in and out of taking itself seriously at just the right times… much in the way I see comic books doing it – or perhaps that’s all just subjective? Yeah, this movie hinges entirely on the performance of Chloe Moretz; everyone else did an admirable job, but she’s the main attraction and it would have just been a gratuitously violent action flick without her.
I just watched this on DVD. I missed it in theaters. I wish I could have watched it on a sweet flat screen and BluRay, but you know it’s a good movie if it still rocked on my 32 inch, 15yr old, dinosaur TV. Also, the violence was an integral part of the storyline and not just thrown in for shock value.
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That’s the key thing to it – gratuitous violence without being gratuitous. All of the so-called horrible things that Hit Girl gets up to are all indicative of her plight and the crux of the story.
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I know I’m late in the game here on this blog, but I just finished a second run of Kick-Ass, and thought I’d tap the internet to see if anyone else noticed the Layer Cake throwbacks. Particularly Cody – getting crushed in the ‘subtle’ yellow land rover that he ‘couldn’t leave behind’, totally stole the show for me. Next to every Macready scene, it’s my favorite bit in this film, simply takes me back to Layer Cake, which is excellent.
Welcome to the Film Cynics, Jeff!
I love that Vaughn sticks to his roots and works in bits from one movie or another. The SUV was a great touch, as was the Claudia Schiffer billboard. I also dig that he’s got a reliable stable of actors he likes to use, and knows how to get the best performance out of them.
I actually dig that you’ve come along to talk about this movie at this stage, now that I’m coping with Vaughn’s regrettable offering of X-Men: First Class. How can a man who adapted one comic book so well, make such a mess of an even more well established movie? I mean, it’s not that bad, but it lacked the cohesive excellence that was Kick-Ass. I’ve got my fingers crossed that the experience was unpleasant enough for him that he’ll stick with making films on his own terms.