Posted By Rick Swift on August 16, 2013

“Robin wishes he was me.” – Hit-Girl

Swift shot: Kick-Ass 2 certainly kicks ass, but nowhere near the amount of ass that was kicked in the original Kick-Ass. The dirty, violent style of Director Matthew Vaughn is hard to master as Jeff Wadlow certainly tries to capture the tone, but he doesn’t quite measure up to the challenge. And even though only Nic Cage’s image is present in Kick-Ass 2, he manages to steal every scene he is a part of.

Following the death of her father, Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) now lives with her dad’s cop friend, Marcus (Morris Chestnut), who tries to keep a leash on the fifteen year old mega-killer.  He wants her to just go to school, get good grades and live a normal life. See if you can guess how that turns out?

Following the death of his father, Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and his mother live in their fortress with Javier (John Leguizamo), who tries to keep him on a leash and prevent him from becoming like his father. Then the little brat has a hissy fit and becomes the HMFIC, or Head Mother F$^%er In Charge. He finds some items that teenagers shouldn’t even know about, and he assumes the identity of The Mother F$^%er . . . you can follow him on twitter here: @MotherF_cker.

Dave Leziwski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) still lives at home with his father and is a senior in high school. His friends, Marty and Todd, still have no idea he is Kick-Ass. In fact, only Hit-Girl knows his true identity. She wants no part of high school and she still goes out and kills people. Let’s face it, after you have strapped a jet-pack to your back and killed a mob boss with a rocket launcher, high school would be pretty boring. So, Dave tries to enlist Hit-Girl to team up a la Batman and Robin. Like the original, the writers take a few jabs at the comic book industry and works of other classic characters such as Batman, Spider-Man and several others.

Hit-Girl opts out, but Dave quickly finds a place to belong when he meets Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) and Eisenhower, his female German shepherd who has a particular yearning which gives new meaning to “taking a bite out of crime.” The Colonel has a group of heroes. There is Dr. Gravity (Donald Faison), Night B_tch, Insect Man and others. They call themselves Justice Forever. At first, they manage to do a bit of good until they cross paths with The Mother F$^%er and his crew The Toxic C_nts, made up of Mother Russia, The Tumor, Black Death and Genghis Carnage.  Oh, and Game of Thrones fans will be happy to see a great cameo from one of the more regular characters from the series.

In the end, there is a much-needed battle royale between the assumed forces of good vs. evil. I must admit, there were moments where my warning to Madison that “this is going to be violent” were certainly warranted. People die. People die badly, while some are straight-up executed. You will love when the “Sick Stick” makes its first appearance, and you MUST stay after the credits. There isn’t so much a teaser for the next film as a completely different ending than what you will think if you leave the theater before the end credits. Seriously, it will completely change the film’s end if you leave before then.

I think where Kick-Ass 2 suffers is that it isn’t novel anymore. People are really expecting to be as impressed as the first one. On its own, Kick-Ass 2 is fine, but compared to the original, with Mark Strong as the main villain, we are expected to believe that McLovin is some kind of super-villain? Meh. The director was wise to over-employ Mother Russia and The Mother F$^%er certainly is vile and despicable, but he is not a super-villain. More like a punk who found his mom’s toys and we never did see where he sewed all of the items to make his leather costume. Still, the peripheral characters make the film fun and you will chuckle at the obvious direct comparison to Chloe Grace Moretz’ next big film, Carrie, as she struggles with high school bullies.  Well, struggles isn’t really the right word, to be honest.

I had fun.  I laughed.  I didn’t cry, but I was surprised a few times. In the end, Kick-Ass 2 didn’t (and perhaps shouldn’t) surpass the original, not by a long-shot. Sorry, folks. This is no Lethal Weapon 2, but it will kick your ass, a little, the second time around. Ultimately, Kick-Ass was so good, as I gave it six-stars (out of five) that the bar was just set a little too high for the sequel. Without Director Matthew Vaughn, it just wasn’t as good.  Directors matter, folks.

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Categories: Movies, Reviews
Tags: Aaron Johnson, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jeff Wadlow, Jim Carrey, John Leguizamo, Kick Ass 2, Kick-ass