Kick-Ass (2010)

Bravo to Matthew Vaughn. When he originally pitched the idea of Kick-Ass to the big hitters in Hollywood everyone turned him down flat. The adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr's  dark comedy comic book was deemed too violent, especially with one of the main characters being a 12-year old girl in a superhero costume who goes round slicing people up and using the C-word. But Matthew isn't known for lacking in confidence and decided to finance the film himself (with a little help from his celebrity friends) and get it into cinemas. Thankfully he managed to pull it off because Kick-Ass is one of the most entertaining films of 2010.

The story follows hapless teenager Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) who decides to fight crime and become a superhero. After becoming a Internet phenomenon, he quickly realises he's in way over his head when he comes up against a ruthless mobster named Frank D'amico (Mark Strong), but two genuine superheros Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) turn up to help Kick ass.

In a way Kick-Ass is a love letter to other comic book films. it's similar to 2009's Watchmen in terms of its outlook of the genre. The fact that no studio would back this film proved to be a advantage to Vaughn as he got to make a film that's ultra violent, darkly funny and entertaining without anyone looking over his shoulder.

It starts with Dave buying a green costume off the Internet, he puts it on and looks nothing more then a weedy vigilante. But it gave Dave the confidence to go out and fight crime. Obviously things don't turn out as planned with Dave getting his ass kicked from a couple of petty criminals. This results in Dave going to hospital where the doctors decide to put metal plates over his bones (clear as day reference to Wolverine). This encourages Dave to go out again and become the superhero he always wanted to be. However, this brings a lot of attention from D'amico after his people are being killed by a unknown superhero. D'amico believes it's Kick-Ass who is responsible and uses the help of his son (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) who becomes Red Mist and tries to lure Kick-Ass to his father. What D'amico fails to realise is that the real culprits are Big Daddy and Hit Girl.

It's this father-daughter relationship that really moves the plot and the action scenes forward. This is Cage's best work in ages. He seems to have actually enjoyed playing the role of Big Daddy. He hilariously mimics the slow-down, camera hogging delivery of Adam West's Batman from the 60's TV show and has a great one shot action scene which shows that Cage still has what it takes to be a action star. Special mention has to go to Chloe Moretz who is excellent as Hit Girl. Chloe seems mature beyond her years and gives genuinely funny one liners but also shows that Hit Girl is still a kid.

Aaron Johnson also does well in his first action role. He gets the audience to follow his story and has the final say in the great OTT final action scene. But this is Vaughn's movie. He has showed he can handle controversial material in the past with Layer Cake and his producer role on Lock, Stock. but with Kick-Ass, Vaughn showed he can also handle big action scenes and big up there with the big boys of action cinema.

Kick-Ass is one hell of a thrill ride. It's ultra violent and entertaining throughout. Simply one of the best films of 2010 and the return of action star Nicholas Cage.