Kick-Ass (film)

Kick-Ass
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Matthew Vaughn
Produced by	Matthew Vaughn Brad Pitt Kris Thykier Adam Bohling Tarquin Pack David Reid
Screenplay by	Jane Goldman Matthew Vaughn
Based on	Kick-Ass  by Mark Millar John Romita, Jr.
Starring	Aaron Johnson Christopher Mintz-Plasse Chloë Grace Moretz Mark Strong Nicolas Cage
Music by	John Murphy Henry Jackman Marius de Vries Ilan Eshkeri
Cinematography	Ben Davis
Editing by	Pietro Scalia Jon Harris Eddie Hamilton
Studio	Marv Films Plan B Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (International) Lionsgate (North America) Alliance Films (Canada)
Release dates	26 March 2010 (2010-03-26) (United Kingdom) 16 April 2010 (2010-04-16) (United States)
Running time	117 minutes[1]
Country	United Kingdom United States[2]
Language	English
Budget	$28 million[3][4]
Box office	$96,188,903[4]

Kick-Ass is a 2010 British-American superhero action comedy film based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. The film was directed by Matthew Vaughn, who co-produced with Brad Pitt and co-wrote the screenplay with Jane Goldman. Its general release was on 25 March 2010 in the United Kingdom and on 16 April 2010 in the United States. It is the first installment of the Kick-Ass film series.

It tells the story of an ordinary teenager, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who sets out to become a real-life superhero, calling himself "Kick-Ass". Dave gets caught up in a bigger fight when he meets Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), a former cop who, in his quest to bring down the drug lord Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) and his son (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), has trained his eleven-year-old daughter (Chloë Grace Moretz) to be the ruthless vigilante Hit-Girl.

Despite having generated some controversy for its profanity and violence performed by a child, Kick-Ass was well received by both critics and audiences. The film has gained a strong cult following since its release on DVD and Blu-ray. A sequel titled Kick-Ass 2 written and directed by Jeff Wadlow (with Vaughn returning as producer only) was released in August 2013, with Taylor-Johnson, Mintz-Plasse, and Moretz reprising their roles.

Plot

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is an ordinary teenager who lives in Staten Island, New York City. Dave purchases a bodysuit and makes modifications to it. He then embarks on a campaign to become a real-life superhero, armed with a couple of batons. He becomes the victim of a stabbing and a hit and run during the first of his crime-fighting encounters. This leaves him with multiple fractures and metal plates, all of which cause him to require extensive rehabilitation. In the process of recovery, he gains a capacity to endure pain and enhanced durability. In his absence from school, a rumor spreads that he is gay. As a result, his longtime crush, Katie Deauxma (Lyndsy Fonseca), immediately attempts to become his friend. After intervening in a gang attack, Dave's actions are recorded by a bystander and put on the internet, turning him into a celebrity. Calling himself "Kick-Ass", he sets up a Myspace account so he can be contacted for help. After responding to a request from Katie, he deals with a drug dealer, Rasul (Kofi Natei), who has been harassing her. Kick-Ass uses a taser against Rasul, but in the event, his thugs quickly overpower him. To his shock he is rescued by eleven-year-old vigilante Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), who kills Rasul first, and then kills all of Rasul's thugs and leaves with her father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage).

Big Daddy is Damon Macready, an honest former cop who was framed as a drug dealer by crime boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong), which led his wife to commit suicide. Against the advice of his former partner Marcus (Omari Hardwick), Big Daddy trains his daughter Mindy to be a skilled crime-fighter and works to undermine D'Amico's operations. D'Amico believes Kick-Ass is responsible and targets him, impulsively killing a party entertainer dressed like Kick-Ass. D'Amico's son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), suggests a different approach. He assumes the role of the vigilante "Red Mist" in order to befriend Kick-Ass and lure him into a trap at D'Amico's lumber warehouse. When Kick-Ass and Red Mist arrive at the warehouse, Frank's men are dead and the warehouse is on fire. With the help of Chris's teddy cam, they find out it was Big Daddy who killed Frank's men and set the warehouse on fire.

Following his lucky escape, Dave decides to quit being Kick-Ass. He confesses the truth to Katie, and she forgives him and becomes his girlfriend. After finding a number of messages from Red Mist urgently requesting they meet, Dave decides to don his Kick-Ass costume one last time. At their meeting, Red Mist convinces Kick-Ass to call his allies, unwittingly luring Big Daddy and Hit-Girl into an ambush. Upon arriving at one of Big Daddy's safe houses, Red Mist shoots Hit-Girl out of a window, and D'Amico's men storm the place, capturing Big Daddy and Kick-Ass. One of Frank's bodyguards gleefully steals a bazooka that is mounted on the wall. Frank intends to have his thugs torture and execute his captives in a live Internet broadcast viewed by millions. Hit-Girl, having survived the shooting, storms the hideout and kills all of the gangsters. However, during the struggle, one thug sets Big Daddy on fire. Hit-Girl and Big Daddy say a tearful farewell before he dies of his injuries.

Hit-Girl infiltrates Frank D'Amico's headquarters, killing numerous guards and henchman on her way. During the battle in the penthouse she runs out of bullets. Kick-Ass arrives on a jet pack fitted with miniguns that Big Daddy had previously acquired, and kills the remaining thugs. Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl then take on D'Amico and his son. While Kick-Ass fights Red Mist in the training room, Hit-Girl is overpowered by Frank. As Frank aims his gun and prepares to finish off the defeated Hit-Girl, Kick-Ass comes to the rescue armed with Big Daddy's bazooka. Frank is blasted out of the window where he is exploded in mid-air.

Red Mist regains consciousness and grabs a samurai sword in the hope of killing Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl. However, he is too late and arrives in time to see Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl leaving on the jet pack. Mindy and Dave retire from crime fighting to live a more normal life, and Mindy returns to live with Marcus and enrolls at Dave's school. Dave has been told to look after Mindy, "not that she needs it." Dave is done with crime fighting, happy to have inspired a new "generation" of superheroes. Chris, still wearing his Red Mist outfit, is shown donning a new mask as he quotes Jack Nicholson as the Joker, "As a great man once said, 'Wait till they get a load of me'" and fires his gun.

Cast

• Aaron Taylor-Johnson as David "Dave" Lizewski/ Kick-Ass: Johnson said that Kick-Ass is a "sensitive guy" who lost his mother and is a "nobody" at school, so he creates his superhero identity "as this whole different persona." Johnson said that Dave is "a kid who’s got the guts to go out there and do something different."^[5] Christopher Mintz-Plasse originally auditioned for the role of Kick-Ass, but during the audition the producers believed that his acting was too loud and obnoxious for the lead, so they immediately gave Mintz-Plasse the role of Red Mist instead.^[6]
• Mark Strong as Frank D'Amico: The head of a criminal organization. Strong says he is drawn to playing the antagonist. He tries to "understand the purpose of the character", and then work on building a believable individual.^[7]
• Chloë Grace Moretz as Mindy Macready / Hit-Girl: Vaughn commented on the maturity of Moretz, who said that because she has four older brothers, she was no stranger to much of the language in the script.^[8][9] Her mother read the script and permitted her to use the profanity in the movie.^[10] Jane Goldman, one of the two co-writers of the script, said, "We just really wanted Hit-Girl to be a character who, in a sense, simply happens to be an eleven-year-old girl, in the same way that Ripley in Alien could have been a guy but the part happened to be played by Sigourney Weaver." Goldman said that Mindy "is genuinely dangerous, she's genuinely mad. It's not her fault: she's been raised in this environment where she doesn't know anything different. She's unwittingly part of a folie a deux."^[11]
• Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris D'Amico / Red Mist: Frank D'Amico's son. Millar said that "the idea was that he was going to be a more minor character in the first film. Then we saw what Christopher Mintz-Plasse was capable of! [...] So the idea of McLovin' and the fun Red Mist doing something horrible is genuinely quite disturbing when you see it happen. We couldn't have got away with that with another actor. The minute we saw his performance, we were looking at each other and realised how good he was and what we could do with him in the future...."^[12][13] Mintz-Plasse said that when he first wore the Red Mist costume, he felt that it was entertaining and that he "looked so bad-ass." The actor sent photographs of himself in costume to his friends. Three weeks into the filming, Mintz-Plasse decided that the costume was not very comfortable and "a big pain in the ass." Mintz-Plasse wore the costume for 12 hours per filming day. Mintz-Plasse had to learn how to use a stick-shift in order to drive the Ford Mustang that is used in the film. Vaughn told Mintz-Plasse that the actor would have to pay for the car if he crashed it.^[14]
• Nicolas Cage as Damon Macready / Big Daddy: Vaughn described Cage's performance as a little bit Elvis and a little bit Adam West. A character in the film even says his costume looks like that of Batman.^[8] Cage was inspired by his costume to try delivering his lines in the same style Adam West used for Batman. The police officer father of an ex-girlfriend also influenced his performance; the habit of Big Daddy referring to Hit-Girl as "child" stems from the police officer.^[15]

• Lyndsy Fonseca as Katie Deauxma, Dave's longtime crush and eventual girlfriend
• Clark Duke and Evan Peters as Marty and Todd, Dave's two best friends
• Omari Hardwick as Sgt. Marcus Williams, former partner of Damon Macready
• Michael Rispoli as Big Joe, Frank D'Amico's right-hand man
• Kofi Natei as Rasul: A gang leader whom Dave (as Kick-Ass) challenges until Hit-Girl arrives to kill the gang members
• Corey Johnson as Sporty Goon
• Dexter Fletcher as Cody
• Jason Flemyng as Lobby Goon: The building doorman
• Xander Berkeley as Detective Victor "Vic" Gigante: A police officer working for D'Amico
• Garrett M. Brown as James Lizewski, Dave's father
• Elizabeth McGovern as Alice Lizewski, Dave's mother
• Sophie Wu as Erika Cho: Katie's best friend
• Yancy Butler as Angie D'Amico: Frank's wife and Chris' mother
• Deborah Twiss as Mrs. Zane: Dave's English teacher
• Craig Ferguson as Himself
• Katrena Rochell as Female Junkie
• Omar Soriano as Leroy, Rasul's doorman
• John Romita, Jr. as Atomic Comics barista^[15]

Series-creator Millar, a native of Scotland, asked Scottish television children's-show host Glen Michael to make a cameo appearance^[16] although his role was cut from the film.^[17] Millar was also set to make a cameo as a Scottish alcoholic but the scene was cut from the film.^[15] WCBS-TV news reporters Maurice DuBois, Dana Tyler, and Lou Young make cameo appearances.

An image of Matthew Vaughn's wife, model Claudia Schiffer, appears prominently on a billboard poster.^[18][19]

Production

Development

The rights to a film version of the comic book were sold before the first issue was published.^[20] Developed in parallel the film writers took a different story direction, to reach many of the same conclusions. Mark Millar acknowledges the differences, explaining that a comic usually has eight acts, while a film usually has a three act structure.^[21]

Vaughn notes that, "We wrote the script and the comic at the same time so it was a very sort of collaborative, organic process. I met [Millar] at the premiere of Stardust. We got on really well. I knew who he was and what he had done but I didn't know him. He pitched me the idea. I said, 'That's great!' He then wrote a synopsis. I went, 'That's great, let's go do it now! You write the comic, I'll write the script.'"^[22] Jane Goldman one of the screenwriters, said that when she works with Vaughn she does the "construction work" and the "interior designing" while Vaughn acts as the "architect."^[23]

“	With Kick-Ass, the book's just out and now the movie's out six weeks later. And I think that's the way things are going to go now, because to go to Marvel's B and C-list characters and try to get movies out [of] them; what's the point of that?	”
—Mark Millar[24]

Millar commented that screenwriters Goldman and Vaughn had made a "chick flick", having placed more emphasis on the character emotions, and particularly in having softened the character of Katie Deauxma.^[8] Millar stated that a film audience would have difficulty accepting Dave and Katie not being together, while a comic audience would more easily accept that idea.^[21] Frank Lovece of Film Journal International says that Katie is "much less Mean Girls" in the film than in the comic, and that the romance between Dave and Katie "proves a needed counterbalance to the otherwise pervasive sense of optimism being stripped away layer by layer, down below angry cynicism and headed straight down the hole to nihilism."^[25] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said "the romance provides an appealing backdrop that the more unnerving aspects of the film play out against."^[26] Other changes included having Red Mist be known to be a secret antagonist from the start, as well as making him less outright villainous, and D'Amico's mob initially thinking Kick-Ass is the one slaughtering their men.

In the original comic-book, Big Daddy is revealed to not actually be an ex-cop, but a former accountant who had been motivated to fight crime by a desire to escape from his life and by his love of comic books. In the film, his purported origin and motivations are genuine: writer Mark Millar considers that the revelation about Big Daddy's background would not have worked in the film adaptation, and would have "messed up the structure of the movie".^[27]

The comic's artist John Romita, Jr. stated that Big Daddy's story in the film "works better stopping short (...) You love him better in the film".^[28]

The climax to the film differs significantly from the comics, with the use of the jetpack and rocket launcher: Millar called this "necessary" as "we're building up so much stuff that we needed some Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star moment".^[27] Comic writer Stephen Grant argued that the film "cheated" on its premise of a "real life" superhero by having these increasingly fantastic events and that this was "why it works. That's where much of the humor comes from... when the film finally makes the notion [the fantasy] explicit we're already so deep into the magician's act that our instinct is to play along".^[29]

Vaughn initially went to Sony, which distributed Layer Cake, but he rejected calls to tone down the violence. Other studios expressed interest but wanted to make the characters older.^[30] In particular studios wanted to change Hit-Girl's character into an adult.^[14] Goldman said that while studio executives said that it would be less offensive to portray Hit-Girl as a teenager, Goldman argued that it would have been more offensive since, as a teenager, Hit-Girl would have been sexualized. Goldman said that Hit-Girl was not supposed to be sexualized.^[31]

Vaughn had a little trouble adapting to film: the film had no studio. The big studios doubted the success of an adaptation as a violent superhero, which made the film be independently financed, but this gave him the freedom to make the film the way he imagined, without having to worry about high-censorship. Vaughn believed enough in the project to raise the money himself.^[30] Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Red Mist) said that the creators of the film were wondering whether a distributor would pick up the movie. On the set Vaughn jokingly referred to Kick-Ass as something that was going to be "the most expensive home movie I ever made".^[14]

The 2D/3D animated comic book sequence in the film took almost two years to finish. Romita created the pencils, Tom Palmer did the inks, and Dean White did the colours. Vaughn gave Romita a carte blanche on the art direction of the sequence.^[32]

Filming

Filming locations include Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Dip 'N' Sip Donuts on Kingston Road in Toronto,^[33] Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School,^[34] and "many Toronto landmarks that play cameos";^[33] and various locations in the UK, including Elstree Studios.^[35] The opening sequence with Nicolas Cage was filmed in a sewage plant in east London.^[27]

The Atomic Comics store in the film is based on the now-defunct real-life Arizona-based chain whose owner, Millar said, is a friend of artist John Romita Jr.'s.^[27] Millar asked Mike Malve for permission to use Atomic Comics in the film, and a model version of Atomic Comics was created at the London pilot studio for use in the filming.^[36]

Music

Differences between comic and film

While being based on the comic book, Kick-Ass had several notable differences from its comic inspiration.

• Kick-Ass has been shown to be the only character in the film with a similar costume to his comic book counterpart. All of the other main characters have different costumes in the film.^[37][38][39]
• Frank D'Amico is called John Genovese in the comic book.^[40] The name is taken from the Genovese crime family.
• In the film, when Big Daddy quizzes Hit-Girl, they are in the armory while Mindy plays with her new knife. In the book, he quizzes her on a communication device whilst she is killing gangsters in a bar, with him providing over-watch with a sniper rifle.^[41]
• In the film, Hit-Girl and Big Daddy track Kick-Ass to his home by his IP address, which they then re-route to protect him from anyone else doing so. In the comic, they simply follow him home.^[41]
• Big Daddy is not an ex-cop in the comics, as he admits to Genovese and Dave shortly before his death. He was an accountant who, much like Dave, fantasized about being a superhero. He made up a fake history of himself and lied that he was an ex-cop with a personal vendetta against John Genovese (Frank D'Amico). He also gets money for himself and Mindy by selling his rare comic books.^[42] His comic backstory is touched in the film by his use of comic terminology in the attempted execution scene.
• When Kick-Ass is being tortured, he is not just beaten up like in the film, he has a car battery hooked up to his testicles and is shocked extensively. The mobsters do not broadcast this torture session on the internet, as they do in the film.^[42]
• In the comic, after getting "mugged" twice, Dave's dad gives him some pepper spray. In the film, he gives him a taser instead.
• In the comic, Kick-Ass confronts a drug dealer named Eddie Lomas after his girlfriend calls him and asks him to go talk to him. In the film, Eddie is replaced by a drug dealer named Rasul, who is Katie's ex-boyfriend.
• In the comic, Dave never becomes Katie's boyfriend; after he reveals that he was not gay, she calls him a pervert for pretending to be gay and orders her boyfriend to beat Dave. Afterwards, they send him a picture of Katie performing fellatio on her boyfriend. In the film, Katie forgives Dave for pretending that he was gay, realizing that Dave loves her, watches the video feed of his torture and pending murder in helpless horror and she becomes his girlfriend.^[43]
• At the end of the comic Red Mist vows revenge against Kick-Ass, sending him an e-mail.^[43] In the film he is shown talking to himself, and quotes Jack Nicholson as the Joker, "As a great man once said, 'Wait till they get a load of me'."^[15]
• In the comic, Kick-Ass does not use a jetpack outfitted with machine guns during the climactic battle. In fact, he does not kill anyone at all (although he does seriously wound Red Mist's father by shooting him with a gun). Instead, he finds and pummels Red Mist with two large pieces of wood, while Hit-Girl kills everyone else.^[43]
• In the comic, Mindy's mother is alive and is married to Marcus, unlike in the movie in which she is dead (committed suicide when Big Daddy goes to jail).

Controversy

In January 2010, an uncensored preview clip of the film was attacked by family advocacy groups for its display of violence and use of the line "Okay you cunts, let's see what you can do now," delivered by Chloë Grace Moretz, who was eleven years old at the time of filming. Australian Family Association spokesman John Morrissey claimed that "the language [was] offensive and the values inappropriate; without the saving grace of the bloodless victory of traditional superheroes".^[44] Several critics, including Christopher Tookey of the Daily Mail, accused the film of glorifying violence, claiming that Hit-Girl was "made to look as seductive as possible".^[45] Tookey's view on Hit-Girl was strongly criticised, with many commentators — including Andrew Collins, the film editor of Radio Times — wondering why he had found the character sexualised. This caused Tookey to claim that he was a victim of cyber-bullying.^[46] In response to the controversy, Moretz stated in an interview, "If I ever uttered one word that I said in Kick-Ass, I would be grounded for years! I'd be stuck in my room until I was 20! I would never in a million years say that. I'm an average, everyday girl."^[9] Moretz has said that while filming, she could not bring herself to say the film's title out loud in interviews, instead calling it "the film" in public and "Kick-Butt" at home.^[47]

Christopher Mintz-Plasse expressed surprise that people were angry about the language, but did not seem to be offended that Hit-Girl kills many people.^[48]

Ratings

In an interview with Total Film, Aaron Johnson confirmed that the film stays true to the adult nature of the comic series by featuring a large amount of profanity and graphic violence. The film received an R rating by the MPAA for "strong brutal violence throughout, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some drug use—some involving children", and it received a 15 rating from the BBFC.^[1][49] Director Matthew Vaughn felt the 15 certificate was about right and expressed some surprise at the film having received a "PG rating[sic]" in France.^[8]

Reception

Box office

The film earned over $12 million internationally in advance of opening in the United States.^[3][4] On its debut weekend in the United States it took in $19.8 million in 3,065 theaters, averaging $6,469 per theater.^[4] Kick-Ass was reported #1, ahead of How to Train Your Dragon by $200,000, which was in its third week of release. On Saturday, 17 April 2010, it fell down to #3 behind How To Train Your Dragon and Date Night. On Sunday, 2 May 2010, it fell down behind A Nightmare on Elm Street, How To Train Your Dragon, Furry Vengeance, The Back-Up Plan, Date Night, Clash of the Titans and The Losers. These numbers for Kick-Ass's debut weekend gross included non-weekend earnings, as the film was previewed during the Thursday night prior to its release.^[50] The film's final gross in the U.S. was $48,071,303 and $48,117,600 outside of the U.S. with a worldwide gross of $96,188,903.^[4]

The film was listed among the most pirated films of 2010; according to statistics on TorrentFreak, the film was illegally downloaded over 11.4 million times, second only to Avatar.^[51]

Critical response

Kick-Ass received mostly positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 77% approval rating with an average rating of 7.1/10 based on 244 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Not for the faint of heart, Kick-Ass takes the comic adaptation genre to new levels of visual style, bloody violence, and gleeful profanity."^[52] Metacritic assigned the film a score of 66%, based on a weighted average of 38 reviews from mainstream critics.^[53]

In the United Kingdom The Guardian gave the film extensive coverage by several of its critics and journalists.^[54] Peter Bradshaw gave the film 5/5 calling it an "explosion in a bad taste factory" and a "thoroughly outrageous, jaw-droppingly violent and very funny riff on the quasi-porn world of comic books; except that there is absolutely no 'quasi' about it."^[55] Philip French, writing for The Guardian's Sunday associate paper The Observer, called the film "relentlessly violent" with "the foulest mouthed child ever to appear on screen, [who makes] Louis Malle's Zazie sound like Cosette" and one "extremely knowing in its appeal to connoisseurs of comic strips and video games."^[19] David Cox, also from The Guardian, noted that the film "kicks the c-word into the mainstream...inadvertently dispatch[ing] our last big expletive."^[56]

Christopher Tookey of the Daily Mail warned, "Don't be fooled by the hype: This crime against cinema is twisted, cynical, and revels in the abuse of childhood".^[57] Chris Hewitt of Empire magazine gave the film 5/5 and declared it, "A ridiculously entertaining, perfectly paced, ultra-violent cinematic rush that kicks the places other movies struggle to reach. ... [T]he film's violence is clearly fantastical and cartoonish and not to be taken seriously."^[58]

International critics who enjoyed the film generally singled out its audacity, humour, and performance from Chloë Grace Moretz. Peter Howell of the Toronto Star gave Kick-Ass a top rating, noting that the production "succeeds as a violent fantasy about our perilous and fretful times, where regular citizens feel compelled to take action against a social order rotting from within."^[59] USA Today critic Claudia Puig praised Moretz as "terrific...Even as she wields outlandish weaponry, she comes off as adorable."^[60] Manohla Dargis from The New York Times wrote, "Fast, periodically spit-funny and often grotesquely violent, the film at once embraces and satirizes contemporary action-film clichés with Tarantino-esque self-regard."^[61] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+, but noted that "personally, I just wish that the film had ended up a bit less of an over-the-top action ride."^[62]

PopMatters and WorldsGreatestCritic.com journalist J.C. Maçek III wrote "It's hard to believe that this movie as quite as good as it was, but it truly managed to balance comedy with gritty realism, believability and fantasy along with ultraviolence and a moralistic bend."^[63]

In Film Journal International, former Marvel Comics writer Frank Lovece said the "delightfully dynamic" movie "actually improves on the comic by not metaphorically kicking in our hero's teeth ... and making him a sad-sack schmuck who was wrong about nearly everything." He found that, "Comedy-of-manners dry humor ... plays seamlessly amid scenes of stylized, off-camera mayhem."^[25]

Other reviews were more negative. Roger Ebert found the film highly offensive and "morally reprehensible," giving it one out of four stars. He cited the coarse language and violence, particularly the scene in which Hit-Girl is nearly killed by D'Amico. "When kids in the age range of this movie's home video audience are shooting one another every day in America, that kind of stops being funny." Ebert's only notes of praise were for the performances of Cage, Johnson and Moretz. The movie made that week's "Your Movie Sucks" list of one-star movies.^[64]

Cinema Blend accused the film of simply rehashing ideas from older superhero films, saying, "It's a subject which has already been covered endlessly by other movies, but Matthew Vaughn's film seems completely unaware of this fact, and bulls its way onward as if it's discovered something new."^[65] Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph did not like the film either, rating it 1/5 and stating, "Matthew Vaughn's Kick Ass is hollow, glazed, and not quite there".^[66]

Karina Longworth was also not impressed with the film's intended satire and themes: "Never as shocking as it thinks it is, as funny as it should be, or as engaged in cultural critique as it could be, Kick-Ass is half-assed."^[67]

Accolades

Award	Category	Winner/Nominee	Result
Teen Choice Awards[68]	Choice Movie Actor: Action Adventure	Nicolas Cage	Nominated
	Choice Movie Villain	Christopher Mintz-Plasse	Nominated
	Choice Movie: Action Adventure	Kick-Ass	Nominated
	Choice Movie: Breakout Female	Chloë Grace Moretz	Nominated
	Choice Movie: Breakout Male	Aaron Johnson	Nominated
People's Choice Award[69]	Favorite Action Movie	Kick-Ass	Nominated
The Comedy Awards	Comedy Film[70]	Kick-Ass	Nominated
	Comedy Actress – Film[71]	Chloë Grace Moretz	Nominated
	Comedy Screenplay[72]	Kick-Ass	Nominated
	Comedy Director – Film[73]	Matthew Vaughn	Nominated
Empire Awards	Best Film	Kick-Ass	Nominated
	Best Actor	Aaron Johnson	Nominated
	Best Director	Matthew Vaughn	Nominated
	Best British Film	Kick-Ass	Won
	Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy	Kick-Ass	Nominated
	Best Newcomer (also for Let Me In)	Chloë Grace Moretz	Won
IGN Awards[74]	Best Actress	Chloë Grace Moretz	Won
	Best Comic-Book Adaptation	Kick-Ass	Won
	Best Blu-ray[75]	Kick-Ass	Won
MTV Movie Awards	Best Breakout Star[76]	Chloë Grace Moretz	Won
	Biggest Badass Star[77]	Chloë Grace Moretz	Won
	Best Fight[78]	Chloë Grace Moretz vs. Mark Strong	Nominated
Young Artist Awards[79]	Best Performance in a Feature Film – Leading Young Actress	Chloë Grace Moretz	Nominated
Critics' Choice Award[80]	Best Action Movie	Kick-Ass	Nominated
	Best Young Actor/Actress	Chloë Grace Moretz	Nominated

Home media

In an interview, Matthew Vaughn said, "There is about 18 minutes of [deleted] footage, which is really good stuff. If the film is a hit, I'll do an extended cut."^[81] The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 3 August 2010 in North America as well as on PSP two weeks after the DVD and Blu-ray release.^[82] This version does not contain the aforementioned deleted content.^[83] Selling 1.4 million units within its first week, one-third of these in Blu-ray format, Kick-Ass debuted at number one on the DVD sales chart.^[84][85] The discs were released in the United Kingdom on 6 September 2010.^[86]

Video games

The video game based on the movie was produced by WHA Entertainment and Frozen Codebase. It was released through the App Store on 15 April 2010 for iPhone and iPod Touch.^[87] The initial Apple platform releases were reportedly unfinished beta versions and were withdrawn from circulation pending a relaunch of a finished version.^[88] The game was released on PlayStation Network on 29 April 2010.^[87] Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl and Big Daddy are playable characters. The game features Facebook missions and integration.^[89] Both versions of the game received negative reviews.^[90]

Sequel

On 8 May 2012, it was reported that a sequel would be distributed by Universal Studios, and that Matthew Vaughn had chosen Jeff Wadlow, who also wrote the script, to direct the sequel.^[91] Aaron Johnson and Chloë Grace Moretz reprise their roles as Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl, respectively,^[92] and Christopher Mintz-Plasse returns as the main villain, going by the name of "the Mother Fucker".^[93] The film was released on 16 August 2013 in the United States and on 14 August 2013 in the United Kingdom.^[94]

See also

• Vigilante film

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Kick-Ass

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kick-Ass (film).

• Official website
• Kick-Ass's channel on YouTube
• Kick-Ass at the Internet Movie Database
• Kick-Ass at allmovie
• Kick-Ass at Box Office Mojo
• Kick-Ass at Rotten Tomatoes
• Kick-Ass at Metacritic

v t e Kick-Ass Comics Kick-Ass Hit-Girl Kick-Ass 2 Kick-Ass 3 Films Kick-Ass Kick-Ass 2 Characters Kick-Ass Hit-Girl Games Kick-Ass: The Game Soundtracks Kick-Ass: Music from the Motion Picture Kick-Ass 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

v t e Matthew Vaughn Director Layer Cake (2004) Stardust (2007) Kick-Ass (2010) X-Men: First Class (2011) The Secret Service (2015) Writer only The Debt (2011, also producer) X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) Producer only The Innocent Sleep (1996) Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) Snatch (2000) Mean Machine (2001) Swept Away (2002) Harry Brown (2009) Kick-Ass 2 (2013) Production company Marv Films

v t e Mark Millar 2000 AD Big Dave Canon Fodder Red Razors DC Comics Aztek Superman Adventures Superman: Red Son Zauriel Marvel Comics Civil War Marvel Knights Spider-Man Marvel 1985 Skrull Kill Krew Trouble Ultimate Comics: Avengers Ultimate Fantastic Four Ultimate X-Men Ultimates The Ultimates The Ultimates 2 Wolverine "Old Man Logan" Other comics The Authority CLiNT Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority Kick-Ass Hit-Girl Kick-Ass 2 Kick-Ass 3 Nemesis Saviour Superior The Unfunnies Wanted War Heroes Films Wanted Kick-Ass Kick-Ass 2

v t e Films based on Marvel Comics Live-action Franchises Avengers The Avengers Avengers: Age of Ultron Blade Blade Blade II Blade: Trinity Captain America Captain America (serial) Captain America (1990) Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Daredevil Daredevil Elektra Fantastic Four The Fantastic Four (1994) Fantastic Four (2005) Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Ghost Rider Ghost Rider Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance Hulk Hulk The Incredible Hulk Iron Man Iron Man Iron Man 2 Iron Man 3 Kick-Ass Kick-Ass Kick-Ass 2 Men in Black Men in Black Men in Black II Men in Black 3 Punisher The Punisher (1989) The Punisher (2004) Punisher: War Zone Spider-Man Spider-Man Spider-Man 2 Spider-Man 3 The Amazing Spider-Man The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Thor Thor Thor: The Dark World Wolverine X-Men Origins: Wolverine The Wolverine X-Men X-Men X2 X-Men: The Last Stand X-Men: First Class X-Men: Days of Future Past Single films Howard the Duck Man-Thing Guardians of the Galaxy Ant-Man Animated Franchises Avengers Ultimate Avengers Ultimate Avengers 2 Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow Hulk Hulk Vs Planet Hulk Single films The Invincible Iron Man Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme Thor: Tales of Asgard Big Hero 6 See also Marvel Studios Marvel Animation Marvel Cinematic Universe Marvel One-Shots

v t e Empire Award for Best British Film Shallow Grave (1996) Trainspotting (1997) The Full Monty (1998) Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1999) Notting Hill (2000) Billy Elliot (2001) Bridget Jones's Diary (2002) 28 Days Later (2003) Love Actually (2004) Shaun of the Dead (2005) Pride & Prejudice (2006) United 93 (2007) Atonement (2008) RocknRolla (2009) Harry Brown (2010) Kick-Ass (2011) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2012) Sightseers (2013)