Kicking Ass

I saw Kick-Ass on Saturday.

Before I go any further, I should add a caveat: I'd spent a few hours earlier imbibing four powerful rum drinks.

Just sayin'.

So... Kick-Ass. I'd picked up the trade paperback of the actual comic book a few weeks back and read it cover-to-cover a few times. Loved it. Grim, dark, funny, and sad. The ending was very much not-Hollywood.

So, of course Hollywood had to mess with the formula.

The overall plot is pretty much the same. Dweeby comic book fan decides to buy a costume and become a superhero (a-la "Batman"). He gets hospitalized the first time he crosses paths with some thugs and winds up with some nerve damage.

Turns out to be to his advantage, as he doesn't feel pain as much as most people do.

Then it deviates a bit from the comic book. The hero, Dave Lizewski, is more functional than he is in the actual comic but less of a capable fighter. Probably for the best, given how he fares in the comic.

I'm trying to tip-toe around the real spoilers here, so forgive the vague language.

Dave, as Kick-Ass (his superhero pseudonym) does manage to interrupt a second mugging and his incredibly-stupid heroism gets caught on video. He becomes an Internet sensation.

Meanwhile, a mob boss is having trouble with his people getting killed. He thinks it's Kick-Ass (of course), but it isn't. A shadowy duo of actual badasses, "Big Daddy" and his homicidal daughter "Hit-Girl" are cleaning up the streets the old fashioned way.

Yeah, that's enough of the plot.

Aaron Johnson is a fairly good Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass. He's convincing as a geek with heroic intentions. His friends are funny and remind me of the kids I hung out with in junior high school.

Lyndsy Fonseca is good as the love interest, Katie. Her character certainly isn't much like the comic. Again, very Hollywood.

Nicholas Cage is freakin' hysterical as "Big Daddy". He was born for that role.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse steals the scenes he's in as "Red Mist", in my humble opinion.

And Chloe Moretz steals the entire movie as the unstoppable killing machine known as "Hit-Girl". This is really her movie and she shines in it.

Kick-Ass is pretty violent, albeit nothing like the comic. Kids shouldn't see this film, nor should the squeamish, but it's an enjoyable flick nonetheless. As I said earlier, the movie is "Hollywood-ized" to lessen some of the harsher elements of the comic. It actually works well.

I'm buying this when it hits DVD.