Kick-Ass 2 Review

Director: Jeff Wadlow.

Cast: Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jim Carrey, Clark Duke, Donald Faison.

Running time: 103 minutes.

Synopsis: When a group of evil super villains descend on the city, it’s up to Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his new crime-fighting friends to take them down.

The original KICK-ASS (part one, you could say) came from nowhere. Although adapted from a comic book, our skinny, green jumpsuit-wearing hero was nothing compared to the likes of Batman, Superman, heck, even Aquaman, but with the likes of Matthew Vaughn (LAYER CAKE, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) as director and Jane Goldman as co-writer, KICK-ASS impressed not just fans, but also critics.

Taylor-Johnson returns as Dave Lizewski, our reluctant hero, back at high school having left his ass-kicking days behind him. The same goes for Mindy Macready/Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz), who, having been homeschooled by Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage really was one of the highlights of the first film) her whole life, makes many tiny, blonde enemies in her first few days. The pair may have hung up their costumes, but it doesn’t stop them training. The same goes for our antagonist, Chris D’Amico/Red Mist/The Mother F****r (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a wealthy orphan with a giant, evil ego who seeks revenge on Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl after their involvement with the death of his father. However, everyone knows there’s no ‘I’ in team, and both sides return with a little help.

We’ve all seen the news reports stating Jim Carrey didn’t agree with the amount of violence involved in the film, but that’s one of the highlights of both #1 and #2. Carrey impresses as Colonel Stars and Stripes, an ex-mob-member-turned-born-again-Christian. You may think his Colonel won’t get to see much action, but he really does! SCRUBS star Donald Faison also serves as a kooky highlight as Doctor Gravity – though he clearly states he doesn’t hold a PhD. The Mother F****r and his team of former psychopaths also make their mark, at one point managing to take down five successive cop cars – you get stuff done when you have Mother Russia (Olga Kurkulina) on your side.

The only thing that lets KICK-ASS 2 down is its in-your-face sentimentality. It seems that every superhero has to have someone to grieve for: Batman and his parents, Spider-Man and Uncle Ben. While Hit-Girl may take down bad guy after bad guy, there’s too many close-ups of her watery eyes (was Vaughn ever this emotional?) and, while she’s quoted as telling Kick-Ass to live in the present, she constantly harks back to what her Daddy would have wanted. The same goes for Dave, and it’s surprising he ever gets anything done while considering how his father wouldn’t approve.

Overall, KICK-ASS 2 is a brutal, ultra-violent, ultra-graphic comical telling of what happens when good and evil come to face each other. Laughs all around, but a little too ’emo’ at points.

KICK-ASS 2 is released in UK cinemas on August 14th.