+ Most Tasteless Movie of the Year
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| One of the splashy-colored, youth-appealing posters for Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass |
A high school nerd makes himself a costume and attempts to become one of his comic book superhero idols but instead finds himself beat up. But that changes when he finds two partners, - and a serious foe.
Kick-Ass is an adaptation of the same-titled comic book by Mark Millar (The Flash: Emergency Stop (1997)) and John Romita Jr. (Black Panther Vol. 3 (2005)), also released in 2010. It is written by Jane Goldman (Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)) and co-writer-director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake (2004)). It is a very entertaining, sporadically funny film that seduces with cool music and splashy colors.
Nicolas Cage (Moonstruck (1987)) is very cool in it, - and so is Chloë Grace Moretz (The 5th Wave (2016)) as his daughter Hit-Girl, - and young Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Godzilla (2014)) is smoking hot in the title role. But Kick-Ass is heavy on villainous stereotypes (of blacks and Italians), and its first act is homophobic. It features one ugly, digitally created giant fire. And its amoral idolization of self-realization through violence and murder perpetrated by and marketed to young folk can hardly be called a sound development for films. It is a very immature bowlful of entertainment.
Related posts:
Matthew Vaughn: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Vaughn's handsome if cluttered reboot
The Debt (2010) - The Nazi war criminal thriller is back in a welcome return (co-writer)
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Estimated 28-30 mil. $
Box office: 96.1 mil. $
= Box office success
[Kick-Ass premiered March 26 (UK) and runs 117 minutes. The rights to the comic book were sold before it was even published. The big studios passed on the project due to its violence involving children, so Vaughn found the money himself, partly though Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment. Filming took place in Ontario, Canada and in England from September 2008 - April 2009. Some controversy arose at the film's release, (it received an R-rating in the US), and some critics reacted against it: Roger Ebert called it "reprehensible" and gave it only 1 star. Kick-Ass opened #1 to a 19.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, (falling to #5 in the following week), where it grossed 48 mil. $ (49.9 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 16.7 mil. $ (17.4 %) and France with 5.9 mil. $ (6.1 %). The film debuted #1 on the DVD chart in North America but has also been listed as one of the year's most illegally downloaded films, reportedly stolen more than 11.4 mil. times. A sequel, Kick-Ass 2, was released in 2013 to lesser success. Kick-Ass is certified fresh at 76 % with a 7.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Kick-Ass?
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