"Kick-Ass 2" - directed by Jeff Wadlow
Kick-Ass was less a shot in the arm for the superhero genre and more of a kick to the crotch.
It found a way to distinguish itself in a crowded genre that includes an impressive line up of genuinely high quality movies.
Beginning with Bryan Singer's "X-Men" in 2000 all the way up to "Man Of Steel" by way of "Spider-Man 2", "X-Men 2", "Iron Man", "The Avengers" and of course Christoper Nolan's sublime Dark Knight movies the superhero movie has come a long way.
And then along comes the little punk flick featuring heroes without the super, extreme violence and a deadly foul mouthed eleven year old girl named "Hit-Girl".
The $30,000,000 movie hauled in more than $96,000,000 worldwide.
Going against the norm the sequel was produced for a mere $28,000,000.
The first films talented director Matthew Vaughan subsequently found success with his own 'real' superhero movie "X-men" First Class".
Taking the helm this time is Jeff Wadlow who also wrote the screenplay.
Wadlow isn't a big name but I enjoyed his MMA film "Never Back Down".
Amber Heard brought me in but the quality of the film kept me there.
It is a great little flick with Wadlow showing quite some skill at putting together a fight scene.
"Kick-Ass 2" then looks like a good fit for him.
Wadlow's sequel has started less than ideally being 'beaten' on opening weekend by "Lee Daniels' The Butler" and three second week movies- "We're the Millers", "Elysium" and "Planes".
Of course that low production budget means that it will certainly make money but to hear the oh-so-clever headlines ('Kick-Ass 2 gets its butt kicked by the Butler!') it is an absolute bomb.
I'd hate to think that the negativity about the low opening box office numbers will sway people into thinking that this movie is a huge disappointment because it certainly is not.
Simply stated - if you liked the first movie you will like this one.
It isn't as tightly paced as "Kick-Ass" nor is it as well written but it is more of the same.
If that sounds like a backhanded compliment then it shouldn't.
Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl are great characters with more to say and I enjoyed spending another couple of hours with them.
This film finds Dave exaxtly where we left him.
He is at high school with his girlfriend Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca) and wants to partner up as Kick-Ass with Hit-Girl.
Mindy McReady should be growing up like a normal fifteen year old girl but thanks to the deceased Big Daddy she has done all of her growing up already.
Denied a childhood she does not fit in at school.
So she doesn't go, instead ducking into a cab as soon as her guardian Marcus has dropped her at the door.
Chloe Grace Moretz is a huge talent and if nothing else a chance to see her perform is reason enough for me to buy a ticket.
As Mindy / Hit-Girl she exploded onto the screen in the first movie with some incredible action scenes and that famous C-bomb drop that almost single-handedly made the redband trailer relevant.
In the follow up Wadlow tries hard to match her famous foul-mouthed antics from the first film but doesn't quite make it.
He is on a hiding to nothing as hearing a pre-teen girl swearing in such harsh fashion is a one shot deal.
It is just not as shockingly funny second time around.
Even in Russian.
Which brings us to the villains.
Lead by The Motherfucker (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) the villains include The Tumour, Genghis Carnage and the gargantuan mountain of muscle Mother Russia (Ukrainian bodybuilder Olga Kurkulina)
One of the action highlights is this massive woman's brutal dispatching of several police cars and their occupants using fist, foot, gun, machete and in one amazing sequence- a lawn mower.
The villains are not the only ones increased in number with a host of good guys also introduced.
Insect Man is inspired by bullying and his pride at coming out as gay, Night Bitch is looking to avenge the death of her sister, Tommy's Mum and Dad want to find their lost son and Colonel Stars and Stripes will be their leader.
Jim Carrey has extensive make up and looks markedly older than usual as the muddled-accented Colonel.
Formerly a mob enforcer he is now a born again Christian who abhors profanity and blasphemy but is fine with brutal beatings and dog maulings.
Carrey is a riot as the Colonel and gets the best line of the movie as he responds to Insect Man revealing his homsexuality.
"As long as you have a good heart we don't care what you put in your mouth" he remarks.
Donald Faison from TV show "Scrubs" is very good as Dr Gravity the baseball bat wielding fake professor.
The supporting cast is impressive with brief turns from Iain Glen ("Game of Thrones"), John Leguizamo and Yancy Butler ("Hard Target")
I haven't seen Butler in a while but as brassy Noo York accented Mother to Christopher Mintz-Plasse's Chris / Motherfucker she is terrific.
Sadly like many of the best performers in "Kick-Ass 2" she has skant few minutes of screen time.
It highlights one of the reasons that this film is inferior to its predecessor- it has too many characters and not enough time to do many of them justice.
Leguizamo and Carrey suffer the most.
Carrey at least has a back story and a part to play in driving the story forward.
Leguizamo on the other hand is given a cardboard cutout of a character who is simply discarded for no good reason far too quickly.
And poor old Lyndsy Fonseca.... not only is she given a mere one minute of screen time but her character is turned into a horrible witch.
The script simply isn't as good as Vaughan and partner Jane Goldman's was for the first film.
It does do a lot of things right though.
The action scenes are well done and some of the nods to the first movie are nice.
There are several story parallels with Dave traveling a similar path to Hit-Girl from the first film.
The opening scene sees her repeating Big Daddy's training technique of shooting her in the chest but with Dave.
The side story of Mindy trying to be a normal high school girl bears some entertaining fruit as she is first is embraced by an horrific group of popular girls then ostracized by them.
Her revenge is graphically, disgustingly entertaining.
As funny as this sequence is this story strand throws the pacing off and the big finish is considerably less impressive than it could have been as a result.
The films sort of lurches to a conclusion rather than building to it.
Still- on the way there is plenty to entertain and all weaknesses aside this is a fun flick.
What we are all here to see is the action of course and "Kick-Ass 2" doesn't disappoint.
There is eye gouging, limb lopping, testicle biting, gunshots, beatings, knifings and neck snappings galore.
Pretty brutal stuff for an R16 and surprising given that the first film was an R18.
There is brief nudity and the language is arguably harsher too.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse is great once again as Chris D'Amico / Motherfucker and has just one of many genuinely funny character names.
Night Bitch, Black Death and the Tumour are just three.
As before this film revels in its inappropriateness.
It's close to being a very good film and with some tweaking here and there to tighten the pacing and provide a better conclusion it could quite something.
As it stands it is a fun film and well worth a look but in all honesty perhaps one to watch on the couch with a beer and a bowl of popcorn unless you are a hardcore fan of the series.
I'm not but not for one second do I regret the ticket purchase.
It is far from perfect but it is perfectly entertaining.
Kick-Ass was less a shot in the arm for the superhero genre and more of a kick to the crotch.
It found a way to distinguish itself in a crowded genre that includes an impressive line up of genuinely high quality movies.
Beginning with Bryan Singer's "X-Men" in 2000 all the way up to "Man Of Steel" by way of "Spider-Man 2", "X-Men 2", "Iron Man", "The Avengers" and of course Christoper Nolan's sublime Dark Knight movies the superhero movie has come a long way.
And then along comes the little punk flick featuring heroes without the super, extreme violence and a deadly foul mouthed eleven year old girl named "Hit-Girl".
The $30,000,000 movie hauled in more than $96,000,000 worldwide.
Going against the norm the sequel was produced for a mere $28,000,000.
The first films talented director Matthew Vaughan subsequently found success with his own 'real' superhero movie "X-men" First Class".
Taking the helm this time is Jeff Wadlow who also wrote the screenplay.
Wadlow isn't a big name but I enjoyed his MMA film "Never Back Down".
Amber Heard brought me in but the quality of the film kept me there.
It is a great little flick with Wadlow showing quite some skill at putting together a fight scene.
"Kick-Ass 2" then looks like a good fit for him.
Wadlow's sequel has started less than ideally being 'beaten' on opening weekend by "Lee Daniels' The Butler" and three second week movies- "We're the Millers", "Elysium" and "Planes".
Of course that low production budget means that it will certainly make money but to hear the oh-so-clever headlines ('Kick-Ass 2 gets its butt kicked by the Butler!') it is an absolute bomb.
I'd hate to think that the negativity about the low opening box office numbers will sway people into thinking that this movie is a huge disappointment because it certainly is not.
Simply stated - if you liked the first movie you will like this one.
It isn't as tightly paced as "Kick-Ass" nor is it as well written but it is more of the same.
If that sounds like a backhanded compliment then it shouldn't.
Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl are great characters with more to say and I enjoyed spending another couple of hours with them.
This film finds Dave exaxtly where we left him.
He is at high school with his girlfriend Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca) and wants to partner up as Kick-Ass with Hit-Girl.
Mindy McReady should be growing up like a normal fifteen year old girl but thanks to the deceased Big Daddy she has done all of her growing up already.
Denied a childhood she does not fit in at school.
So she doesn't go, instead ducking into a cab as soon as her guardian Marcus has dropped her at the door.
Chloe Grace Moretz is a huge talent and if nothing else a chance to see her perform is reason enough for me to buy a ticket.
As Mindy / Hit-Girl she exploded onto the screen in the first movie with some incredible action scenes and that famous C-bomb drop that almost single-handedly made the redband trailer relevant.
In the follow up Wadlow tries hard to match her famous foul-mouthed antics from the first film but doesn't quite make it.
He is on a hiding to nothing as hearing a pre-teen girl swearing in such harsh fashion is a one shot deal.
It is just not as shockingly funny second time around.
Even in Russian.
Lead by The Motherfucker (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) the villains include The Tumour, Genghis Carnage and the gargantuan mountain of muscle Mother Russia (Ukrainian bodybuilder Olga Kurkulina)
One of the action highlights is this massive woman's brutal dispatching of several police cars and their occupants using fist, foot, gun, machete and in one amazing sequence- a lawn mower.
The villains are not the only ones increased in number with a host of good guys also introduced.
Insect Man is inspired by bullying and his pride at coming out as gay, Night Bitch is looking to avenge the death of her sister, Tommy's Mum and Dad want to find their lost son and Colonel Stars and Stripes will be their leader.
Jim Carrey has extensive make up and looks markedly older than usual as the muddled-accented Colonel.
Formerly a mob enforcer he is now a born again Christian who abhors profanity and blasphemy but is fine with brutal beatings and dog maulings.
Carrey is a riot as the Colonel and gets the best line of the movie as he responds to Insect Man revealing his homsexuality.
"As long as you have a good heart we don't care what you put in your mouth" he remarks.
Donald Faison from TV show "Scrubs" is very good as Dr Gravity the baseball bat wielding fake professor.
 |
| New characters -Night Bitch, Dr Gravity, Insect Man, Battle Guy and the massive Mother Russia |
I haven't seen Butler in a while but as brassy Noo York accented Mother to Christopher Mintz-Plasse's Chris / Motherfucker she is terrific.
Sadly like many of the best performers in "Kick-Ass 2" she has skant few minutes of screen time.
It highlights one of the reasons that this film is inferior to its predecessor- it has too many characters and not enough time to do many of them justice.
Leguizamo and Carrey suffer the most.
Carrey at least has a back story and a part to play in driving the story forward.
Leguizamo on the other hand is given a cardboard cutout of a character who is simply discarded for no good reason far too quickly.
And poor old Lyndsy Fonseca.... not only is she given a mere one minute of screen time but her character is turned into a horrible witch.
The script simply isn't as good as Vaughan and partner Jane Goldman's was for the first film.
It does do a lot of things right though.
The action scenes are well done and some of the nods to the first movie are nice.
There are several story parallels with Dave traveling a similar path to Hit-Girl from the first film.
The opening scene sees her repeating Big Daddy's training technique of shooting her in the chest but with Dave.
The side story of Mindy trying to be a normal high school girl bears some entertaining fruit as she is first is embraced by an horrific group of popular girls then ostracized by them.
Her revenge is graphically, disgustingly entertaining.
As funny as this sequence is this story strand throws the pacing off and the big finish is considerably less impressive than it could have been as a result.
The films sort of lurches to a conclusion rather than building to it.
Still- on the way there is plenty to entertain and all weaknesses aside this is a fun flick.
 |
| Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Motherfucker (left) and with John Leguizamo (right) |
What we are all here to see is the action of course and "Kick-Ass 2" doesn't disappoint.
There is eye gouging, limb lopping, testicle biting, gunshots, beatings, knifings and neck snappings galore.
Pretty brutal stuff for an R16 and surprising given that the first film was an R18.
There is brief nudity and the language is arguably harsher too.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse is great once again as Chris D'Amico / Motherfucker and has just one of many genuinely funny character names.
Night Bitch, Black Death and the Tumour are just three.
As before this film revels in its inappropriateness.
It's close to being a very good film and with some tweaking here and there to tighten the pacing and provide a better conclusion it could quite something.
As it stands it is a fun film and well worth a look but in all honesty perhaps one to watch on the couch with a beer and a bowl of popcorn unless you are a hardcore fan of the series.
I'm not but not for one second do I regret the ticket purchase.
It is far from perfect but it is perfectly entertaining.
| Rated | R16 for brutal violence, brief topless scene and lots of profanity |
| Running Time: | 103 minutes (1hr, 37 mins without end credits) |
| Starring: |
| Aaron Taylor-Johnson | --- Dave / Kick-Ass |
| Chloe Grace Moretz | --- Mindy / Hit-Girl |
| Christopher Mintz-Plasse | --- Chris / The Motherfucker |
| Morris Chestnut | --- Marcus Williams |
| Clark Duke | --- Marty / Battle Guy |
| John Leguizamo | --- Javier |
| Jim Carrey | --- Colonel Stars and Stripes |
| Claudia Lee | --- Brooke |
| Yancy Butler | --- Mrs D'Amico |
| Donald Faison | --- Dr. Gravity |
| Augustus Prew | --- Todd / Ass Kicker |
| Lindy Booth | --- Night Bitch |
| Romert Emms | --- Insect Man |
| Olga Kurkulina | --- Mother Russia |
| Lyndsy Fonseca | --- Katie |
| Iain Glen | --- Uncle Ralph |
| Garrett M Brown | --- Mr Lizewski (Dave's Dad) |
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