Me likey. Bad language so NSFW.
Looking forward to this one, looks good.
I suspected they would go the PG-13 route. Very pleased that they haven't.
Looks interesting, sadly Nicholas Cage is in it thus making sure it will be terrible.
This looks like its only going to be either totally brilliant nonsense or a pile of utter wank, with no middle ground.
I'm looking forward to seeing it.
I'm just wondering when they're going to show the Scott Pilgrim trailer. Someone wake me up when that happens.
He's meant to be pretty good in this from what I've heard. Looking forward to this a lot.
Saw this last night and really liked it - best way I can describe it would be as a bizarre mixture of equal parts Superbad, Spiderman and Kill Bill (Pt.1) - lots of swearing, fairly full on fight scenes and violence tempered by teenage naïveté.
I was surprised by how English it was - not in appearance, it seemed all American. But the script was by Jane Goldman (Mrs. Jonathan Woss) & Matthew Vaughn (who also directed), the same team that did Stardust. There were also a lot of English actors in the cast, but despite that it still felt very American... It really reminded me of Spiderman in a lot of places, which wasn't accidental ("with no power comes no responsibility"), right down to the leading actors' American accent sounding suspiciously like a Toby Maguire impression. It's over the top in places, can be a little disjointed in a couple of places, but it was highly enjoyable, funny, touching and very kick-ass.
Oh and:
I was surprised by how English it was - not in appearance, it seemed all American. But the script was by Jane Goldman (Mrs. Jonathan Woss) & Matthew Vaughn (who also directed), the same team that did Stardust. There were also a lot of English actors in the cast, but despite that it still felt very American... It really reminded me of Spiderman in a lot of places, which wasn't accidental ("with no power comes no responsibility"), right down to the leading actors' American accent sounding suspiciously like a Toby Maguire impression. It's over the top in places, can be a little disjointed in a couple of places, but it was highly enjoyable, funny, touching and very kick-ass.
Oh and:
Nicholas Cage was actually very good in it... weirdly. Not normally a fan at all but he was not annoying (which is high praise indeed).
I'll have to give it a look then!
And for a different, rather po-faced review, The Times:
Kick-Ass: kiddy bashing has no place in the movies
This film goes headlong into morally dubious waters
The chances are, you’ll hear about Kick-Ass even if you don’t see it. Because of one highly controversial internet trailer, the blockbuster has been vilified in the blogosphere and mainstream media for daring to insert a button-cute 11-year-old girl into a blood-soaked world of chopped limbs, splattered brains and coldly spat expletives. The sneering use of the “C-word” by the girl (Chloe Moretz) has angered commentators, who have duly aimed their outrage at its director, Matthew Vaughn, the co-writer Jane Goldman (wife of Jonathan Ross) and the producer, Brad Pitt.
The full-length movie, which had its premiere this week will certainly not placate anyone. This comic-book adaptation goes even farther into deep, morally dubious waters. Moretz’s Mindy, a superhero sidekick versed in cussing and killing, seems queasily sexualised with pigtails and pistols, then punched to a pulp by the villain, played by Mark Strong.
The defence, no doubt, will point to ironic distance and the moral relativity of a cartoon-like milieu. But if these scenes don’t exactly legitimise child abuse, to some they might legitimise the fantasy of abusing a child.
Kick-Ass is not alone. Right across the cinematic spectrum we are seeing a pernicious normalisation of the abuse and degradation of children. The burning alive of a child in the opening of the recent Hollywood vampire movie Daybreakers, for instance, or the killing of child zombies in the comedy-horror Zombieland, are once unthinkable moments that have become almost tedious. Everywhere you look in mainstream horror, demon children are being smothered, stabbed, burnt and kicked to death on camera.
Supposed art-house movies are no better. Critically lauded films such as the African war drama Johnny Mad Dog or the Afghanistan-set Buddha Collapsed out of Shame go one step farther, cruelly blurring the line between child actor and victim. Both feature scenes where seemingly unaware seven and eight-year-old “actors” are pushed, through slaps and taunts, into something resembling real breakdowns. These movies are released into a society that repeatedly claims to be outraged by the abusive deaths of children such as Khyra Ishaq, Victoria Climbié and Baby Peter but, by watching the films, sanctions abuse.
It is unfortunate, then, for the creators of Kick-Ass that their film alone has been vilified as the locus of all things creepy and unholy when their only mistake was to take a trend and make it visible. Yet if the outcry is loud enough, and if the movie initiates a change in attitudes to screen children, it might be worth the fuss. In other words, in the gun-toting argot of the film itself, if Kick-Ass has to take a bullet for the team, so be it.
That was definitely from The Times and not The Daily Mail?
Empire are raving about it in their review
Empire are raving about it in their review
Killing child zombies, what a disgrace!
It looks shit.
I'd pretty much agree with that review.
Saw it last night at a preview showing.
Had no idea what it was about beforehand, but was not really looking forward so much when i saw the poster at the cinema and read the text "Nicolas Cage". Don't get me wrong i don't mind a bit of Cages' earlier work but since he was apart of that abortion of common sense, the remake of The Wicker man, he's not exactly done anything inspiring or to be quite blunt....shit and predictable. Perhaps i'm speaking from an ignorant stand point on this so if i'll gladly be proved wrong, but as far i'm aware he's really just done a lot of predictably bland action films. Cage rant over.
Needless to say that this film was a very well written, filmed and made action/comedy adventure. Combining a nice mixtures of the serious with the tounge firmly in cheek. It's a nice spin on the superhero genre, a bullied 'geeky' comic loving kid decides to make a stand and turn himself into a crime fighter. For me part of the charm of the film is the fact that he's not really that good at it. The star of the piece for me is undoubtably the little 12 year old girl, who really does kick some arse (this is an British made film after all, even if you wouldn't recognise it from all the accents).
It's a fun movie, that doesn't take itself too seriously (this is indicated as it has McLovin in it). If when you heard the term 'PC' you think of a Personal Computer and not Political Correctness then you'll be fine with the movie (little girl swears a bit, which is apparently going to shortly bring along the apocalypse).
Anywho, I recommend it.
7/10 maybe 8/10 if you watch it in the right mood.
Had no idea what it was about beforehand, but was not really looking forward so much when i saw the poster at the cinema and read the text "Nicolas Cage". Don't get me wrong i don't mind a bit of Cages' earlier work but since he was apart of that abortion of common sense, the remake of The Wicker man, he's not exactly done anything inspiring or to be quite blunt....shit and predictable. Perhaps i'm speaking from an ignorant stand point on this so if i'll gladly be proved wrong, but as far i'm aware he's really just done a lot of predictably bland action films. Cage rant over.
Needless to say that this film was a very well written, filmed and made action/comedy adventure. Combining a nice mixtures of the serious with the tounge firmly in cheek. It's a nice spin on the superhero genre, a bullied 'geeky' comic loving kid decides to make a stand and turn himself into a crime fighter. For me part of the charm of the film is the fact that he's not really that good at it. The star of the piece for me is undoubtably the little 12 year old girl, who really does kick some arse (this is an British made film after all, even if you wouldn't recognise it from all the accents).
It's a fun movie, that doesn't take itself too seriously (this is indicated as it has McLovin in it). If when you heard the term 'PC' you think of a Personal Computer and not Political Correctness then you'll be fine with the movie (little girl swears a bit, which is apparently going to shortly bring along the apocalypse).
Anywho, I recommend it.
7/10 maybe 8/10 if you watch it in the right mood.
Hadn't heard about this till now but just saw the trailer and thought it looked pretty good, might have to check it out.
Matthew Vaughn looks promising doesn't he?
Layer Cake, Stardust and Kick-ass... he has mixed it up genre-wise..
I have yet to see Kick-Ass but I enjoyed the first two.
Layer Cake, Stardust and Kick-ass... he has mixed it up genre-wise..
I have yet to see Kick-Ass but I enjoyed the first two.
R.Nilsson7 is going to hate the trailer from 1:16 in...
I had free tickets to see this last night at the Printworks in Manchester, although I couldn't make it time so didn't go, only to find out later that evening that the one, the only, McLovin was at the screening 
Was slightly gutted to have missed that opportunity
Still the film looks great, heard rave reviews about it (well besides the one above from the times!), so will probably go and watch it over the weekend!
Was slightly gutted to have missed that opportunity Still the film looks great, heard rave reviews about it (well besides the one above from the times!), so will probably go and watch it over the weekend!
Saw it earlier and thought it was brilliant, Hit Girl might be the best character ever. Might be some bits that on repeat viewings might drag it down, like the pacing of things, but overall was great, super violent, very funny and some great action scenes.
That's... hilarious. I'd expect that from the Daily 'THE WORLD IS ENDING BLAME THE JEWS, GAYS AND NIGGERS' Mail, but not from the Times.
It's the Brass Eye outrage all over again.
Funny thing is, while the Times (and Daily Mail to be fair) are getting their self-righteous panties in a twist, critics like Radio 4's Front Row have been falling over themselves to praise it.
Which is fair enough, as I thought it rocked
Which is fair enough, as I thought it rocked
So I said the Daily Mail were getting their panties in a twist over Kick-Ass, well they finally actually reviewed it, and I don;t think it's an exaggeration to call it my favourite movie review ever
Ahhh the Daily Mail...
Don't be fooled by the hype: This crime against cinema is twisted, cynical, and revels in the abuse of childhood
Verdict: Evil
Rating: 1 out of 5
Millions are being spent to persuade you that Kick-Ass is harmless, comic-book entertainment suitable for 15-year-olds.
Don't let them fool you. Kick-Ass has been so hyped that it is certain to be a hit. It is also bound be among the most influential movies of 2010. And that should disturb us all.
It deliberately sells a perniciously sexualised view of children and glorifies violence, especially knife and gun crime, in a way that makes it one of the most deeply cynical, shamelessly irresponsible films ever.
Damaging role model: Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl in Kick-Ass
The title character is nerdy American teenager Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson from Nowhere Boy). He yearns to be a superhero so he dresses up as one. The trouble is that he has no superpowers and - unlike Batman - no money.
His one asset as a crime fighter is that he can survive serious thrashings because his nerve-endings have been destroyed by previous beatings. Like Wolverine in X-Men, he has metal plates where some of his bones should be.
The movie's central appeal is to fanboys like Dave, who will spot the references to previous comic-strip movies, and imagine that these constitute satire. Really, the tone of the movie is deferential pastiche.
The plot is an unimaginative clone of Spider-Man 2, and the screenplay - by director Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman, wife of comic-book enthusiast Jonathan Ross - conforms slavishly to the cliched norms of Hollywood action movies by working towards not one but two huge action set-pieces at its climax.
As a rip-off of its Hollywood betters, it is sporadically funny, efficient, and well shot - hence my arguably overgenerous award of one star.
The biggest problem of the movie, creatively speaking, is that it has pretensions to intelligence but is profoundly, irredeemably bone-headed.
It starts as though it's going to expose the huge gulf between comic strips and reality, but ends up reducing the real world to the most morally fatuous kind of comic strip.
A worthwhile satire on comic-book culture might criticise the idiotic way it uses sadism and voyeurism to entertain, with no thought of the social consequences.
It would also lampoon the risible pretentiousness of many so-called graphic novels. Kick-Ass does neither.
The movie looks at first as if it might satirise the era where talentless nonentities can become celebrities. But it has nothing to say about that either.
Although it runs nearly two hours, there's even less character development than there is social comment. Our hero learns nothing, except that extreme violence against criminals is cool, which is something he thought in the first place.
The reason the movie is sick, as well as thick, is that it breaks one of the last cinematic taboos by making the most violent, foul-mouthed and sexually aggressive character, Hit-Girl, an 11-year-old.
Played with enormous confidence by Chloe Moretz, she's the most charismatic character in the movie. She may not realise it, but she has been systematically abused by her father, brainwashed and turned into a pint-sized killer.
She believes that her vigilante dad (played, simplistically, for laughs by Nicolas Cage) is a hero just as much at the end as she did at the beginning.
Her attitude towards him doesn't mature, which makes her pathetic, rather than cool. The fact that many people who see the film are going to think she is cool is one of its most depressing aspects.
The movie's writers want us to see Hit-Girl not only as cool, but also sexy, like an even younger version of the baby- faced Oriental assassin in Tarantino's Kill Bill 1. Paedophiles are going to adore her.
One of the film's creepiest aspects is that she's made to look as seductive as possible - much more so than in the Mark Millar and John Romita Jr comic book on which this is based. She's fetishised in precisely the same way as Angelina Jolie in the Lara Croft movies, and Halle Berry in Catwoman.
As if that isn't exploitative enough, she's also shown in a classic schoolgirl pose, in a short plaid-skirt with her hair in bunches, but carrying a big gun.
And she makes comments unprintable in a family newspaper, that reveal a sexual knowledge hugely inappropriate to her years.
Oh, and one of the male teenage characters acknowledges that he's attracted to her.
Now, children committing violent and sexual acts should be a matter for concern. Children carrying knives are not cool, but a real and present danger.
Underage sex isn't a laugh. Recent government figures revealed that in this country more than 8,000 children under the age of 16 conceive every year.
Worldwide child pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry. In Africa and South America, brutalised youngsters who kill and rape are rightly feared as members of feral gangs or child soldiers.
Movies such as City Of God, Innocent Voices and Johnny Mad Dog have treated the issue with sensitivity.
But in Kick-Ass, childish violence of the most extreme kind - hacking off limbs, shootings in the mouth, impalings and fatal stabbings - is presented with calculated flippancy, as funny, admirable and (most perversely of all) sexually arousing.
The film-makers are sure to argue that there's nothing wrong with breaking down taboos of taste - but there are often good reasons for taboos.
Do we really want to live, for instance, in a culture when the torture and killing of a James Bulger or Damilola Taylor is re-enacted by child actors for laughs?
The people behind this grotesque glorification of prematurely sexualised, callously violent children know full well that they are going to make a lot of money, and they'll get an easy ride from the vast majority of reviewers, who either don't care about the social effects of movies or are frightened to appear ' moralistic' or 'judgmental'.
The truth is, of course, that all critics moralise and make judgments, whether they realise they are doing so or not. So please don't be misled. Kick-Ass is not the harmless fun it pretends to be.
Yes, it's lightweight and silly, but it's also cynical, premeditated and mindbogglingly irresponsible.
And in Hit-Girl, the film-makers have created one of the most disturbing icons and damaging role-models in the history of cinema.
Ahhh the Daily Mail...
Clearly on form. . .
Well that just makes me want to see it more.
That review alone makes me want to see it.
Hit Girl is the best thing about the film. Spastic reviewer just wants to complain, shes not 'sexually aggressive' or 'seductive' in the slightest. Shes just funny and has some amazing action sequences.
All I gleamed from the article is that the reviewer must be a repressed paedophile. I'm quite capable of looking at a 'seductively' dressed 15 year old and not getting a bulge in my pants. Presumably he's not.
As a fan of comic books, films and laughing at morally outraged right wing newspapers, this review is the ultimate encouragement for me to go see this movie.
Kick Ass, Scott Pilgrim, The Expendables, The Losers and The A Team. Looks like its going to be a good year for popcorn movies.
I saw it last night, and it didn't disappoint. It's absolutely fantastic, one of the best films I've seen in years. Considering the fact that it had a tiny budget compared to most superhero and action films released, the production values and action scenes are absolutely fantastic and the whole film just had me enthralled from start to finish. I didn't want it to end.
Hit-Girl does completely steal the show though, she's brilliant. One flaw for me is the casting of Mc Lovin, he just doesn't suit the role.
Hit-Girl does completely steal the show though, she's brilliant. One flaw for me is the casting of Mc Lovin, he just doesn't suit the role.
"OK, you cnuts, let's see what you can do now."
Not sure if it was his not fitting the role, or just me constantly thinking of him as McLovin instead of his character.
It is going to be hard for him to ever be seen as anything other than McLovin. It was the same in Role Models.
Kick Ass was a very good film, but I though it was let down a bit by the romance in it.
Saw this movie today. Loved it. Really different.
Enjoyed it very much, Hitgirl made the film for me so I guess me and future Mrs Preston are peados!
I liked the nod to Layer Cake with the Yellow Range Rover.
I liked the nod to Layer Cake with the Yellow Range Rover.
Can someone just merge my pathetic 3 post thread with this. Much love.
Is it just me trying to understand what that means?
Got my vowels the wrong way round, paedos is short for paedophile. If you read the article from the Daily Mail in this thread then you might get my drift.
Basically me and my future wife are clearly paedophiles for liking the Hitgirl character.
One of the best movies I've seen for ages!