At this time of year the weather is predictably unpredictable. One day it’s grey, cold and wet, the next it’s bursting with spring sunshine, but one thing the weather forecasters didn’t see coming was the shitstorm that arrived with the UK cinema release of Kick-Ass. And now it’s the turn of American cinema-goers to see what prompted the media circus as Kick-Ass opened on the other side of the Atlantic last Friday. Get your umbrellas ready, this could be messy.
Okay, so here’s the drill with Kick-Ass. It’s an independently financed super hero actioner (the big studios wanted to tame it – never!) based on the comic book by Mark Millar (Wanted) and John Romita Jr. It follows one high school student, Dave Lizewski’s (Nowhere Boy’s Aaron Johnson) bid to stand out from the pack and make a difference by reinventing himself as superhero, Kick-Ass. Enter the home-made costume and some modified night sticks.
Only he soon finds himself embroiled in a bigger fight as he meets up with the father daughter crime-fighting pair that is Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage channelling Elvis Presley and Adam West) and Hit-Girl (stand-out star Chloë Moretz) who are waging war against the criminal underworld. And it’s the diminutive pre-teen, Hit-Girl aka Mindy McCready that is stealing all the headlines and prompting the outcries.
Why the fuss? Because she slices off men’s legs and shoots one in the cheek, violence realised in a colourful, hardcore way. Oh and she swears. And not just the soft stuff, we’re talking the C word – enough to have upset some (how shall we say?) more delicate parties. A youngster turning the air blue? Get her to a nunnery! Of course, Kick-Ass was always going to upset these people, and yet conversely, for some fans, it’s this unrelenting, unapologetically adult quality that makes it so appealing.
While the debate might be simmering down in the UK, it’s just reaching boiling point in America as the US of A gets familiar with the full-on charms of Kick-Ass. Here at Boxwish, we just love the movie and if you do too, here are some cool clothes to show your support for these unconventional crime fighters.
Grab some other must-have Kick-Ass merch here.
Are you offended by Hit Girl using the C word?
So, what do you think? Add your 2 cents now!