Reviews

It raised a smile once or twice but the rest of it was predictable high-school humour about a bunch of unlikeable men being ridiculously irresponsible.

One stupid mistake leads to a series of stupid mistakes and it goes on and on and on ad nauseum. You don't need me to explain the plot - it's all there in the trailers.

No-one in the cast was particularly good except maybe for Heather Graham (given the limited scope of the script). She, at least, was kind of likable even if she veered into stereotype 40% of her screen time.

Now I can understand why young people would like this: unable to summon up the courage or the cash to pull this sort of crap themselves they would enjoy living through this farce vicariously. I am fairly sure it will only serve to embarrass them in 10 years time the same way Porkys did for my generation.

It is unfortunate that this low level of creativity and poor humour can pull big audiences but maybe this is the net result of the dumbing-down of mainstream cinema over the last 20 years. Bums-on-seats can please the shareholders and accountants but it's a lousy motivation for any sort of art-form.

I was surprised to discover, as you probably have been, that this film is some sort of deep allegory drawn from a bible story concerning a guy who is driven half crazy by god as part of some lousy bet god made with the devil. Nice guy this god. I'd like to buy it a drink one day. Then kill it.

What I saw, not being Jewish or familiar with the old testament or any of that junk, was a painful to watch series of personal disasters happen to an otherwise nice guy for NO APPARENT REASON. Bit like the guy in the bible I am assured by other reviews here. That's deep, people and deep means art. All hail art...

Now maybe I'm a bit thick but that's not what I go to see movies for. If I want to see large loads of crap repeatedly handed to people on a plate I switch on the news or watch reality TV or something. I go the the cinema to be transported.

They did, however, do a great job making it look like the sixties; they did do a great job making ALL of the characters extraordinarily unlikeable and they did do a great job inadvertently promoting atheism as any spiritual guidance our poor anti-hero receives is patently self-serving cryptic garbage.

Oddly enough it all works out in the end and he succumbs to corruption and becomes as a-hole like everyone else. Like god really.

But hey, I'm picky like that.

The judaism stuff was mostly interesting but ultimately depressing.

3/10 for set design/art direction

I'm not usually a fan of violent films. I found Sin City, while artistically and stylistically interesting, kinda nauseating with the violence and the gore. Oddly enough not so with Kick-Ass. For some reason I was not only OK with it - I appreciated it.

Kick-Ass is a fantasy film. It examines power, corruption, lies, deception, honour and love. It speaks of the pain of powerlessness and the hidden desires many of us have to simply fight back against those who would intimidate and possibly destroy us.

I won't go into the plot. There are many reviews here that will explain that to you. Nor will I bother to moralize about HitGirl's language or violence. Like I said, this is a fantasy film. She is a fictional character and to equate her with any 11yo living is simply ridiculous.

I've read reviews here that would place all sorts of filters on the film - sociological, political, moral - but they're ALL missing the point. It's a fantasy. A dream. It's make-believe and it's a hell of a lot of fun. See it and make up your own mind.