Tuesday, August 20, 2013

In the cinema: KICK-ASS 2

I was recently going through some old posts on this blog and found my review of the original KICK-ASS. I stated that it was fun and that even  Mrs. Bax0jayz, who is not a fan of comic books, enjoyed the movie. With that in mind, and especially the trailer in which Chris D'Amico (Christopher Mintze-Plasse aka McLovin) declares that he is no longer the Red Mist, but will be known as THE MOTHER FUCKER, I knew we had to see KICK-ASS 2

After the events of KICK-ASS, the world's first supervillain, THE MOTHERFUCKER seeks revenge against Kick-Ass and his team of superheroes. 
KICK-ASS 2 picks up a couple years after the first movie. Mindy Macready (played by Chloe Grace Moretz) continued her violent crime-fighting ways, while Dave Lizewski resigned to a life as a regular high school kid, shelving his Kick-Ass suit. 

The city saw an uptick in "super hero" activity thanks to the ground broken by Dave. People are conducting community service and neighborhood patrols under the anonymity of masks. Seeing this trend, and thanks to pleas from Mindy, Dave decides to get back into action. 

Unfortunately, that's when Hit Girl got busted by her guardian, Detective Marcus Williams (Morris Chestnut) and promises to hang up the purple cape and wig. That's when the movie goes wild. Without Hit-Girl, Kick-Ass is forced to join a group of heroes led by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) to uphold the way of justice. Meanwhile, the Red Mist changed his identity to The Mother Fucker and hired his own team of villains in a search for vengeance (in the original Kick-Ass, the namesake character killed D'Amico's father, the crime boss, with a BAZOOKA). So you have Mindy learning to be what it's like to be an ordinary fifteen year old girl, Kick-Ass is cleaning up the streets with his friends, and the Mother Fucker is tracking him down. 

The movie is a roller coaster ride of introspection and self-discovery with a heavy dose of humor sprinkled about and lessons about life and responsibility, as any good superhero movie should. The movie clocks in at 103 minutes, but you feel like you get more than two hours of entertainment out of it. You just can't believe so much was squeezed into that time.

I feel that the media wrongly gave this movie a black eye. It's a cross between a rated R comedy and superheroes. OF COURSE the mainstream media would shit-can it. If you want to see something highbrow, this will definitely not be your cup of tea. But if you want to see ordinary people putting on silly costumes, trying to make a difference while setting loose with a flurry of dirty jokes. If you liked the first one, you should check this out. It's definitely worth catching on the big screen.

More on IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1650554/?ref_=hm_cht_t4


Possible Spoilers beyond this point
  • I've seen reviews that state, "Jim Carrey  wasn't properly utilized in this movie." Really? Have they seen his work over the last DECADE? He is brilliant in the supporting role. The movie is KICK-ASS after all, not Colonel Stars and Stripes.
  • There have been complaints that there wasn't enough HIT GIRL in the movie. The movie is clearly divided about life the choices of Dave, Mindy and even Chris. It's fairly crucial to the characters' evolution and how each ends up by the finish of the film, that they confront their demons and do what they feel must be done. So Mindy had more screen time than Hit Girl, but it HAD to be that way.
  • Lindy Booth is SUPER HOT as Night Bitch.(at right)
  • The collection of good guys is almost comical, while the team of villains seems vicious by comparison. It made for a very questionable outcome for the final showdown.
  • Chloe Grace Moretz didn't have the same violence and vulgar-intensive character as in the previous Kick-Ass adventure. But she is 16 now (15 in the movie) and seems almost too feminine for the role as bruiser. It was funny seeing a small child slicing and dicing villains in the first movie, but this time it was starting to seem a little weird. Hit Girl is looking kinda womanly, but the name Hit Woman wouldn't have the same impact, I suppose.
  • John Leguizamo as Javier was great. He was like Alfred to Motherfucker's Batman (an actual line from the movie).
  • Colonel Stars and Stripes training his dog to attack cock and balls with the command "shvonce" was pure brilliance. 
  • Mother Russia is at once one of the funniest and most fearsome villains ever created. 

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Awesome review. I loved the first movie; have been meaning to catch this one. Just might have to get my ass out to the theater this weekend.