Kick Ass With Nicolas Cage and McLovin 2010
- Image by Michael Kwan (Freelancer) via Flickr
I just got done watching Kick Ass and I have to say it totally surprised me in a good way. In seeing the previews I didn’t think I would like it but after watching it it was a very engaging and even heartwarming story.
Superhero stories are often quite unbelievable and this one had one main element which was extremely far-fetched. But we’ll get into that in a moment.
I’m not much into comic books or the whole superhero thing though I do enjoy some of the movies. They all seem to follow the similar storyline of some tragic accident, nuclear situation, crazy insect or animal bite gone wrong which causes a mutation.
This one is the story of a completely Joe average guy who some would say isn’t even average but is below average. The guy looks like a nerd but doesn’t even seem to have the nerdy intelligence or the tremendous computer savvy. He seems like a totally average guy who gets ignored by girls and isn’t even the funny guy of his group of regular guy friends.
It’s basically the story of the bored kid who becomes a hometown hero.
He decides one day that he’s tired of living this ordinary life. There has to be something more and the catalyst for this change in action is a traumatic experience which has happened to him so many times before. He and his buddy are walking back to their houses after visiting the comic store when they get jumped by these two guys who always steal their money and their cell phones.
This time is different because there’s a man watching from the window across the street on about the fourth floor of an apartment building.
Our hero Dave calls the guy out on this in his mind. “How can somebody just stand there and watch?” he wonders to himself.
He decides that he is no longer going to stand around and watch, he is going to get into the action. As you can probably tell this is going to lead to disaster. This kid has no special skills, no special talents, and no fighting or military training at all. It’s almost like a blind man attempting to become a fighter pilot. Only the blind man would probably have better odds of surviving.
He starts to do a little bit of training and buys this gay costume from the scuba store. At one point in the movie he is called by one of his antagonists “the green condom”.
He gets entangled in some serious stuff. And of course there is a girl. Like all other girls she doesn’t notice him or really even know who he is.
The first time he is on the prowl he has his costume on underneath his regular clothes. He comes upon the two guys who robbed him earlier and they are currently attempting to steal someone’s car. At first he is afraid when they tell him to go away. He runs behind the alley but then decides he is no longer going to live in fear.
He comes back out in his Kick Ass costume and calls the guys out. They get into a scrum and Dave gets a few shots in on them with these police looking batons that he uses. One of the guys stabs him in the gut then the two antagonists run away. As he is staggering from his knife wound in the gut he gets hit by a car.
You’d think this would cause him to reevaluate what he is doing but all he’s worried about as he’s near death is that if his dad finds out the dad will kill him.
He gets patched up with metal plates and thinks it’s cool because his x-ray looks like Wolverine.
The worst part is he made the EMS guy promise not to tell anyone about the costume but unfortunately this meant he was naked. So there were the inevitable gay rumors floating around along with a very awkward gay question situation with his dad. Comedy gold.
He is able to befriend the girl under false pretenses because she thinks he’s gay. They get very close and you just know it’s going to be an awkward moment later in the movie.
There is an element of The Punisher as well as Spiderman in this movie. And they even bring out the Clint Eastwood dramatic fight scene instrumental music from one of his western movies when it was time to have the big showdown with the bad guys.
Nicholas Cage’s character is called “big daddy”. He’s got a little girl named Mindy whose superhero name is “hit girl”.
Dave gets tangled up running an errand for his new female friend Katee and she tells him about this guy who’s been hassling her. This is where he first meets hit girl and big daddy. Mostly through hit girls efforts but with an assist from big daddy they save his tail as he is about to get killed by the bad guys.
So now he knows there are true superheroes around and he is at a crossroads. He is questioning his decision. He’s feeling overwhelmed because he’s way in over his head and he’s getting way more than he bargained for.
He just wanted to help a few people without being in grave danger and now he’s neck deep in the quicksand.
The hometown boy who would be hero is thinking about retiring, hanging up the costume forever.
He wants to reveal his identity to his love Katie. Hit girl and big daddy come to visit him in order to make sure he stays quiet. They see potential in him but he expresses his self-doubt to them.
There’s a big battle coming because the elements of The Punisher will become apparent to you in the big daddy character. He was framed for a crime he didn’t commit by the head drug dealer kingpin. When he went away to prison his wife was too weak and ended up killing herself but there was a silver lining. The daughter she carried inside of her was taken out and live.
Now he’s on a vendetta against the drug dealer D’Amico.
I won’t ruin the ending for you but I will say there’s definitely a big finish with a number of surprises. One of the main characters does buy the farm. An unexpected hero emerges. And our main character finds inner strength he never knew he had. We don’t know whether it’s out of guilt or an emboldened sense of courage because of the trials he just went through.
And much like the original Spiderman they leave it open for a sequel.
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