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From the Past

Films on the to-do list

  • Armageddon Time
  • Black Widow
  • Chimes at Midnight
  • The Killing of a Sacred Deer
  • Last Christmas
  • Remember Sunday
  • Shazam! 2
  • Thor: Love and Thunder
  • Spy Guys

Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

Film review: Kick-Ass 2 (2013), directed by Jeff Wadlow

Since self-proclaimed superhero Kick-Ass defeated the bad guy in the first film three years ago, his alter ego Dave (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has gone back to school but he wants to become a better Kick-Ass than he ever was, so he asks an old friend to help him train.

Said friend is Mindy, a.k.a. Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), tries hard to fit into a normal life now that her father is dead. Her custodian, Marcus (Morris Chestnut), wants her to hang up the mask and live a normal teenage life. And sure, queen bee Brooke (Claudia Lee) takes her in but when you’re Hit-Girl deep down, can you ever really settle down to pedicures?

Seeing as how Hit-Girl can’t don her costume and team up, Kick-Ass finds himself a new friend, Dr Gravity (Donald Faison), who in turn introduces Kick-Ass to a bigger group of masked vigilantes, headed by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey). There are Night Bitch (Lindy Booth), Insect Man (Robert Emms), Tommy’s Dad (Steven Mackintosh) and Tommy’s Mum (Monica Dolan), and Battle Guy (Clark Duke).

Across town the son of the previous baddie, Chris D’Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), wants revenge on Kick-Ass, so why not become a supervillain? And why not assemble a whole team of supervillains?

Also starring John Leguizamo as Javier, Augustus Prew as Ass Kicker, Garrett M Brown as Dave’s dad, Iain Glen as Uncle Ralph, with the supervillains: Daniel Kaluuya as Black Death, Andy Nyman as The Tumor, Tom Wu as Genghis Carnage and Olga Kurkulina as Mother Russia.

If you saw the first film, you’ll like the sequel. If you haven’t seen the first film, see that one first. It’s a comedy about ordinary people becoming comic book superheroes. It’s a violent comedy so if you’re not happy about people getting the crap beaten out of them, these are not the films you are looking for.

Personally, I think this film was fun and the humour was deliciously dark at times … and at others, very much classic slapstick and gross-out. Not too much, though.

Jim Carrey has publicly taken a step back from the film because of the violence, which really does make you wonder if he didn’t see the first film. It’s not a role in keeping with his typical wacky style, although it’s still … not quite un-unhinged.

The strangest thing about the film is the number of British actors in it. I thought maybe it was just Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Iain Glen, but, as it turns out about half the cast hails from these isles. The Brits are seemingly taking over!

Anyway. Like I said of the first film, “don’t expect the movie to be much of an intellectual challenge”, but if you like films where ordinary people dress up as superheroes to go fight crime, it’s good fun. And yeah, Iain Glen in his brief scene manages to show more menace than “The Motherfucker” does in the entire film.

4 out of 5 purple motorbikes.

Traxy

An easily distracted and over-excited introvert who never learns to go to bed at a reasonable time. Enjoys traveling (when there's not a plague on), and taking photos of European architecture. Cares for cats, good coffee and Boardwalk Empire. A child of her time, she did media studies in school and still can't decide what she wants to be when she grows up.

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