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Film reviews

Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Kick-Ass (Film)

by Matthew Pejkovic | April 07, 2010 09:32 | Edited April 08, 2010 10:52

While the film entertainingly channels the spirit of comic book superheroes, it too often oversteps the mark with a stylised use of violence

Superheroes really are a sadistic bunch. Delve below the spandex, and one will find a damaged individual. The consensus is that these caped crusaders are symbols of good, dishing out justice to the wicked while defending the weak. Such is the belief of young Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a New York teen whose life of comics and jerking off is given direction when he decides to become a superhero and christens himself Kick-Ass.

 

To call his first foray into crime fighting disastrous would be an understatement. Delusional and suicidal are more accurate descriptions: these punches bruise, and these knives sever, with the crimson splatter of blood all over the screen. But in this league of superheroes, Kick-Ass is merely a novice when compared to the likes of Big Daddy (a twisted take on Adam West's Batman, played by Nicolas Cage) and his sidekick/eleven-year-old daughter, Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz, pulling off a convincing Eastwood snarl while cursing up a storm).

 

The film's momentum, and indeed plot, comes from their quest for revenge against crime boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong). But with their scenes also comes a sticking point: the exploitative nature of film violence as entertainment, and the use of a child as the main protagonist during these sequences. While director Matthew Vaughn channels the spirit of Mark Millar's comic, too often he oversteps his mark with his stylised use of violence, with young Chloe Moretz as the main attraction. 

 

No doubt many will cheer as Hit Girl massacres crims left and right. Yet it all seems just a tad depressing when only forty years ago, twelve-year-old Linda Blair repulsed viewers with her performance as a cursing and violent troubled young soul in The Exorcist, and yet today there's not even a wince from the crowd. How things have changed.