Kick-Ass 2 review

KICK-ASS 2:

STILL KICKS ASS, JUST LIKE ITS PREDECESSOR, WITH CLASSIC COMIC BOOK SATIRE, RAUNCHY COMEDY, AND VIOLENCE!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

(From left to right) Col. Stars & Stripes, Hit-Girl, Kick-Ass, and The Mother Fucker in Kick-Ass 2

            I’ve been waiting for a sequel to the 2010 action comedy, Kick-Ass for quite some time now, I loved how bizarre, violent, and surprisingly funny it was, plus it had a colorful cast of costumed characters who really took superhero movies to a new level.

            Three years later, I finally got my sequel, Kick-Ass 2, which is still just as violent and crude as the first film, but I felt the plot for the sequel was slightly better than the predecessor. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy), Chloe Grace-Moretz (Hugo, Dark Shadows, Carrie), and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad, Pitch Perfect) reprise their roles as Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass, Mindy McCready/Hit-Girl, and Chris D’Amico, plus they added some newcomers like the always hilarious, Jim Carrey (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone) as Colonel Stars & Stripes, Donald Faison (Scrubs) as Dr. Gravity, Lindy Booth as Night Bitch, Augustus Prew, taking on the role as Dave’s friend, Todd from Evan Peters, and many others.

            It’s been about four years since the events of the first Kick-Ass movie, and we find Mindy McCready (Chloe Grace-Moretz) at the age of 15, trying to live a normal life and not out fighting crime as her alter ego, Hit-Girl, as requested by her caretaker, Marcus, after the death of her father, Big Daddy, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is missing the good old days protecting the city as Kick-Ass. Dave really wants to learn how to be a better hero, so he asks Mindy for help in a series of comedically ridiculous scenarios involving martial-arts and gunfire, behind Marcus’ back.

            Meanwhile Chris D’Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is seeking revenge on Kick-Ass for blasting his dad, Frank D’Amico (the antagonist from the first film) with a bazooka, so he puts away his Red-Mist tights and becomes the new supervillain in town, The Mother Fucker. He plots to kill Kick-Ass publicly and set New York in flames, with the help of an evil army he assembled, consisting of Black Death, Mother Russia, The Tumor, and many other menacing faces.

            Kick-Ass also joins an underground team of heroes known as Justice Forever, to fight crime on a nightly basis, led by born-again Christian, Colonel Stars & Stripes (Jim Carrey), while there he comes across many heroic figures (Dr. Gravity, Night Bitch, the super-parents duo, Remembering Tommy, etc.). It turns out his old friend, Marty (Clark Duke-The Office, Hot Tub Time Machine) is a member of Justice Forever, his alter ego is Battle Guy, which is basically a Captain America knockoff, Dave’s other friend, Todd also creates an alter ego for himself, The Ass-Kicker, pretty much the same costume as Kick-Ass, except the colors are reversed.

            After a chain of events, Dave and Mindy are reunited as Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl and assemble with the Justice Forever team to defeat The Mother Fucker’s army of “Toxic Megacunts!” and save the day before the city is destroyed.

            Overall Kick-Ass 2 is a pretty good sequel to its predecessor, it’s still just as silly, violent, and entertaining as the first movie, plus they threw in plenty of surprises and laughably implausible moments. Dave is still the likable dweeb we all remember from the first flick, Mindy is still just as badass as she was in the predecessor and she now has more awesome gadgets and weapons, Jim Carrey is great as Colonel Stars & Stripes, probably one of his greatest performances in a while, and The Mother Fucker is probably one of the greatest villains of all time, not because he’s a threat and not because he’s menacingly evil, no he sucks at being a villain so much, that he’s just awesome…and pretty funny at times.

            For the most part, I enjoyed Kick-Ass 2, but I wouldn’t exactly consider it better than the first movie. I’m not entirely sure why, the premise was a little better in the sequel and there were more heroes and villains, but I guess the main reason why I liked the first Kick-Ass a little more was because I’ve never seen a superhero movie like it before at the time.

            Don’t get me wrong, I did see violent comic book movies before Kick-Ass like the Blade trilogy, The Punisher movies, V for Vendetta, and Watchmen, but not with this kind of premise about regular people dressing up as superheroes, and fighting crime. Even so, this was a pretty “Kick-Ass” sequel, enough violence, crude comedy, and goofy superhero costumes to satisfy fans of the comic books and people looking for a silly, Tarantino-like time watching a superhero flick. 

REVIEW’S OVER MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!