4. When would-be hero Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) dubs himself Kick-Ass, dons his green goofball gear and runs out to fight crime, he's nearly killed in a scene which, alas, provides the narrative's high point and leaves the audience wishing that the kid had bought the farm rather than make us endure the rest of this garbage.
3. In Kick-Ass' universe, nobody has superpowers, but a fellow can be a superhero if he is a gun-toting, revenge-bent psychotic a la Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) who creepily trains his daughter to be a Munchkin murder machine called Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz.)
2. The film's second act, complete with the obligatory "team-up," is dull and followed by a third act riddled with nearly every superhero movie cliche possible from a dumb gadget perfectly suited to the crisis of the moment and the same series of slow-motion fight scenes and martial arts nonsense that's plagued every action movie since "The Matrix" circa 1999.
1. "Kick-Ass" is a stupid movie pretending to be a sly parody and fresh take on genre of films that may well have run their course in popular culture.
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- 1hr 57min - Rated R - Action/Adventure/Comedy/Drama -
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Cast: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Chloe Moretz, Nicolas Cage
Finney's Flicks Grade: D
