Kick-Ass: Critic Reviews

Rarely has a film lived up to its title so well!

Is it a problem that Kick-Ass is by far the most violent movie ever to feature kids as heroes? Parents should consider themselves warned, though personally, I just wish that the film had ended up a bit less of an over-the-top action ride.

Fast, periodically spit-funny and often grotesquely violent, the film at once embraces and satirizes contemporary action-film cliches with Tarantino-esque self-regard -- it's the latest in giggles-and-guts entertainment.

Perhaps I shouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did: but with more energy and satire and craziness in its lycra-gloved little finger than other films have everywhere else, Kick-Ass is all pleasure and no guilt.

Peppering an action flick with comedy is hardly original, but the mocking tone and off-kilter vibe set this film apart. It even has a hearty dose of charm, thanks mostly to the most outrageous performance by a child in recent memory.

Suggested subtitle: Iron Man, You Just Got Served.

At some point it becomes exactly the big, boneheaded movie it was making fun of in the first place.

Never as shocking as it thinks it is, as funny as it should be, or as engaged in cultural critique as it could be.

[It] thinks it's so brave and bold. But it's more like the title character, a dweeb who just thinks he's tough.

Kick-Ass stands as an intriguing fantasy of social networking. To achieve superhero status, you simply put up your own Web site, announce it on MySpace and Facebook and you're on your mythic way.

The film has the courage of its genre convictions. It doesn't have even a whiff of market testing. It does everything on its own terms, and in this age of McMansion movies, that's a super accomplishment.

Nicolas Cage is a hoot, a hollar and a fright as Damon Mac ready, a.k.a. Big Daddy. How can he be otherwise? He's a good cop gone mad.

"Kick-Ass" isn't just broken by its flaws ... It's flawed to start with, a hypocritical mess whose attempts to swagger turn into clumsy stumbling and whose knowing wink blinds it to its own problems.

Kick-Ass is a compendium of all sleazy things, and it sings like a siren to our inner Tarantinos.

When filmmakers nudge a child into viewing savagery as slapstick, are we not allowing them to do what we condemn in the pornographer -- that is, to coarsen and inflame?

Let's say you're a big fan of the original comic book, and you think the movie does it justice. You know what? You inhabit a world I am so very not interested in.

I started hating this movie around the midpoint.

This is the ultimate fanboy product.

A particularly timely story about civic-mindedness and the pursuit of fame.

Kick-Ass has punk energy, ace action moves, and a winning sense of absurdist fun.

Kick-Ass is a guilty pleasure of the highest order, a guns-blazing, media-savvy superhero comedy designed to thrill geeks and outrage prudes.

Everything you've likely heard about Kick-Ass is true, providing you've heard it's profane, outlandish, ultra-violent, shocking, funny and wildly entertaining.

While not all of the elements fit together tonally, on the surface level -- the level that the title suggests -- Kick-Ass does exactly what it's supposed to, as long as you're game for the language and the gutting.

Kick-Ass offers some genuinely clever observations about the creation of celebrity in a world where viral video clips and latenight talkshow quips can turn attention seekers into overnight sensations (and inadvertent role models).

Prepare for amazement: This thing makes Nicolas Cage cool again.