Tuesday 13 August 2013

'Kick Ass 2' film review

'Kick Ass 2'

Director- Jeff Wadlow
Starring- Aaron Taylor-Jonhson
Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Chloe  Grace Moretz
Jim Carrey


The usual suspects.....and a scary Russian lady.


Plot
Dave Lizewski is back, and he's doing what he does best, dressing up as the whitest pimp in the world and getting his ass kicked. That  is  just  one  part of his training in becoming a superior crime fighter. All under the harsh tutelage of Mindy Macready aka Hit Girl. Each hero is  trying to  find his or her place in the world, granted Mindy tries far more aggressively than Dave,but  that is just a matter of fact, especially since at the start of the film Dave is still a huge wimp. When we see Chris again, we find him at the end of his tether, he wants to avenge his father after what Kick Ass did to him so he becomes the first super villain, pretty much becoming the anti-thesis to Kick  Ass. All manner of ridiculous events begin from this point on, read on if you are interested in frightening Russian women, a S.I.C stick and Jim Carrey at his funniest/weirdest.

All jokes aside, this guys is fantastic.
Good
Right, as with all  films  of the superhero genre, this film comes with all the positives of a comic  book. Well fleshed out characters which are all given time to showcase why they are in this film. From Mother Russia to Colonel Stars and Stripes, each character is kooky and over the top fun. There are some notable differences in this film from the source material. The majority of the differences are welcome changes, such as the film censoring itself at times. You will immediately know these scenes as they all involve the Mother Fucker. Every time you think he is about to go over the top and do something unforgivable, he pulls himself back from the brink and points out he is not that evil. In the comic it is an all out uncensored mess which at times brought the comic from bad ass heavy hitter to oddly disturbing freak  show. I appreciated these changes as they gave a new, lighter dimension to the film. The more I  see Aaron Taylor Johnson the more I respect this guy as an actor. The scenes with real heart are few and far between but Aaron pulls them off fantastically and genuinely. Even though he is clearly built like a tank he still manages to pull off a convincing wimp and outsider, which makes it slightly more realistic when he comes face to  face with Christopher Mintz-Plasses utterly inferior Mother Fucker. Once again Chloe Grace Moretz shines as Hit Girl, but neither of them hold a candle to the outright weirdness that is Colonel Stars and Stripes, the born again Christian superhero played with passion by Jim Carrey.

Just, so wrong.
Bad
There is a message  in this film, be true to yourself, and it will be drilled into your head from the first five minutes of the film until the credits roll on this ultra violent, ultra swearing comic book adaptation. I clocked it and over twenty minutes of this film are given over to a speech about the same subject matter. I am all for accepting yourself and finding peace with who you are but it got to the point where I was getting considerably frustrated with Mindy and then Dave explaining how much they need to be themselves at various points of the film. There was then the absence of Nicholas Cage, I did  not think I would miss Big Daddy but I felt his absence in the film so much. Jim Carrey is great but it felt like they were trying to replace one kooky father figure for another. Finally, I am going to say something which I never thought i'd say, the swearing and ultra violence was too much for me at times. It felt put on at times, Mindy did not  need to swear nearly as often as she did and the violence got so ridiculous at a point I just didn't enjoy it. I simply did not enjoy the violence nearly as much as I did in the first film.

Ugly
This film has a lot of balls, but not nearly enough heart.
Rating; 7/10

There is an evil Jesus reference, and I loved it.

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