MOVIE REVIEW - Kick Ass 2

What was undeniable was the original Kick Ass was a big hit a couple of years ago, so here we go again, with Kick Ass 2.

For those of you late to the party, Kick Ass was a satirical look at everyday people who donned "superhero" costumes who were not actual superheros.  Including Dave (Aaron Taylor Johnson) who is also the superhero Kick-Ass.  He is an every day high school kid who moonlights as this superhero.   His friend, Mindy (Chloe Grace Moretz) is also Hit Girl.  She is a very gifted martial arts trained killer who is all of 15 years old.  Jim Carrey is actually in this movie as one of our dressed up good guys. More on that in a minute.

They are teamed up with ton of others who are also dressing up as superheros and are out to fight crime against a bunch of others kids and young adults who are dressed up as "super-villains," and are out to terrorize the big city.  It is a parody of good vs. evil, and who will win?   That is Kick-Ass 2.  If you missed the first one, you will be lost, so rent it before you go.

Now a word of caution that isn't told in the trailer for this movie. This is a HARD rated R movie.  This movie, although dealing with kids on screen is not anywhere near kid friendly.  This movie is ultra bloody violent throughout. Graphic, extreme, violence that isn't hidden in anyway.  So much so, that Carrey actually said a month or two ago, he wished he hadn't made this movie in wake of real life events.  This movie is also laced throughout with harsh language that stretches far beyond the F-word into words and phrases that we all would never use in real life situations.  The reason I bring this up, was there were TONS of moms....and dads, there with kids as young as 8 or 9.  This movie is completely inappropriate for kids.

Like the first, there are some very funny scenes in this flick, where the satire is so extreme that it is well thought out and cleverly written.  There is a fine line walked between comic book fun and real life drama and some of that is pretty original.  But overall what this is, is violent, complete with plenty of graphic cop-killing, and a glorification of extreme violence.  It has something to say sure, about the hero in all of us, but it has to.  I doesn't really want to.  Big difference between reading this comic book and watching this on the big screen. 

But his will find a big fan base, as the first one did and be a big hit. But this does lack some of the charm and fun from the first flick and is more violent.  Also, some of the jokes are falling flat because of real life events.  Example being, our young hero Hit Girl, or Mindy?  Her full name in both movies is Mindy MacCready in parody of the real like country singer whose life was a mess  much like our Mindy.   Of  course the real life MacCready killed herself a few months ago.   So now, it's not so funny, it's just bad taste.

Kick-Ass 2.  A hit, but overall a miss.