SYNOPSIS:
Kick-Ass, Hit Girl and Red Mist return for the follow-up to 2010’s irreverent global hit: ‘Kick-Ass 2.’ After Kick-Ass’ (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) insane bravery inspires a new wave of self-made masked crusaders, led by the badass Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey), our hero joins them on patrol. When these amateur superheroes are hunted down by Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse)—reborn as The Mother Fucker—only the blade-wielding Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) can prevent their annihilation. When we last saw junior assassin Hit Girl and young vigilante Kick-Ass, they were trying to live as normal teenagers Mindy and Dave. With graduation looming and uncertain what to do, Dave decides to start the world’s first superhero team with Mindy.
Unfortunately, when Mindy is busted for sneaking out as Hit Girl, she’s forced to retire—leaving her to navigate the terrifying world of high-school mean girls on her own. With no one left to turn to, Dave joins forces with Justice Forever, run by a born-again ex-mobster named Colonel Stars and Stripes. Just as they start to make a real difference on the streets, the world’s first super villain, The Mother Fucker, assembles his own evil league and puts a plan in motion to make Kick-Ass and Hit Girl pay for what they did to his dad. But there’s only one problem with his scheme: If you mess with one member of Justice Forever, you mess with them all.
Gonna be perfectly honest here-I went into Kick-Ass 2 not having fully seen the first film that came out in 2010, or even reading the comic book. Fortunately I was able to catch up just a tad on the first film thanks to the clips available on the Youtube Movieclips channel. I know, it doesn’t admonish me from seeing Kick-Ass, so as always, I will get to it when I can. With all this in mind, I quite enjoyed the film. Sure, some critics out there might make a point of their own regarding whatever flaws there might be, but to each his own.
Kick-Ass 2 sees Aaron Taylor-Johnson back in the role of Dave, a high school teen living complicated, cramped home life he with his father (Garrett Brown), who is weary about Dave’s choices, a subplot that plays a mild keyrole throughout the film. Eager to return to the superhero fold, Dave returns to his costumed identity as Kick-Ass in the pursuit of justice as a New York superhero armed with two sticks and his own bravery, which is never enough when he’s on his own since he still tends to get his ass kicked. He then sets out to team up with actress Chloë Moretz‘s Hit Girl, who is still in town, doing her thing, living the life of a superhero on her own, adhering to her father’s memory and always defending the city delivering her own brand of justice. Unfortunately, Hit Girl is forced to put her alter ego on the backburner when her guardian, Marcus (Morris Chestnut), who is also a detective, starts taking control and making sure she stays in school, which turns out to be anything but what Mindy preferred.
Soon, the NYPD prioritizes the automatic lockup of anyone in a costume, leaving Dave in distress when his father turns himself in to protect his son when his costume is discovered. And as if things couldn’t get any worse, as Chris wages and his new band of scum wage war on Justice Forever, casualties arise, forcing Dave and Mindy back in costume as Kick-Ass and Hit Girl united with a new army of their own as they head, face to face with The Motherfucker to settle the score once and for all.
I additionally enjoyed Faison as Dr. Gravity, along with Clark Duke and Lindy Booth who respectively play Dave’s high school friend, Battle Guy, and Dave’s main superheroine squeeze, Night Bitch, along with Robert Emms who surprised me as Insect Man, an openly gay, scrawny superhero who is armed with special tonfas and can handle himself on screen. Actor Jim Carrey does a terrific job as the JF leader, even though you don’t see him on screen for long. I was also happy to see actor Morris Chestnut in the film, as I haven’t seen him in anything for a long time. He and actress Moretz shared some excellent chemistry on screen with Chestnut playing a detective, parental guardian and fatherly figure to Moretz’s character, a natural-born crimefighter cornered into a reluctant life of “normalcy” out of love and care.
Actor John Leguizamo‘s role as The Motherfucker’s assistant wasn’t that all memorable, even though it sucks the way his character exits the film…well, at least for me anyway. I love when Leguizamo is used to his full potential, but sadly that’s not the case here. And Mintz-Plasse is about as daring as he gets with his role, especially with the costume. But I have to say, out of all the supervillains, actress and bodybuilder Olga Kurkulina stands out the biggest and the brightest, and I hope to see more of her in later films, having played the role of Mother Russia perfectly for this film. Actor Daniel Kaluuya was awesome as the MMA fighter Chris recruits as The Black Death, even though I don’t fully know Kaluuya’s background in fighting, which I imagine there was some training involved.
To be honest though, the biggest center piece of the action here happens to be Hit Girl, who, as petit as she is, can lay hordes of baddies down for the bloody count and still be home in time to catch the highlights. Moretz‘s fight with Kurkulina was fun to watch, as Grace singlehandedly owns this role, and I hope she continues Hit Girl, and even other action roles if she so chooses. The script was also hilarious, charming and compelling when it needed to be, and nothing was really too overdone for me, accept for maybe for a few tongue-in-cheek scenes here and there-not going to mention them, but I will thankfully say the film survives through to the end. And of course, this is a bold film, and obviously rated R, so now what you know what you’re in for.