Susan Granger’s review of “Kick-Ass 2” (Universal Pictures)
Based on Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s comic book franchise, the “Kick-Ass” (2010) introduced Chloe Grace Moretz as feisty pre-teen Mindy Macready – a.k.a. Hit-Girl, the cleverly
cartoonish, leather-clad, purple-wigged epitome of female empowerment, spewing profanity and hurling lethal nunchuks.
Having lost her beloved father (Nicolas Cage), she’s now living with NYPD detective/guardian, Sgt. Marcus Williams (Morris Chestnut), and trying to cope with the Mean Girls and their cruel, competitive, cheerleading cliques at Millard Fillmore High School. When dopey Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) – a.k.a. Kick Ass – asks her to join him to form a dynamic duo of misfit teens, at first Mindy refuses, sneering: “I’m in the NFL. You play pee-wee.” So Kick-Ass teams with a deluded, spandex-clad squad, called Justice Forever, that includes Dr. Gravity (Donald Faison), Mr.
Radical (Matt Steinberg), Night Bitch (Lindy Booth), Battle Guy (Clark Duke) and an older couple – Tommy’s Dad (Steven Mackintosh) & Tommy’s Mom (Monica Dolan) – whom the police refused to help when their son disappeared. Led by crook-turned-Born Again Christian, sadistic Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey), these vigilantes patrol the streets and help at food banks. The uber-villain is Red Mist, Chris D’Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), in his late mother’s bondage gear; his mob boss father was killed by Kick-Ass. He’s hired brutal bodybuilder/former-KGB agent Katharina Dombrovski (Olga Kurkulina) – a.k.a. Mother Russia – with her manservant (John Leguizamo).
Utilizing upper-corner panel captains, writer/director Jeff Wadlow recycles the same costume-wearing caricatures, same crime-fighting concept, adding even more misogynistic violence. Indeed, after last December’s shooting tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, Jim Carrey has publicly disavowed Wadlow’s all-too-realistic depiction of brutal carnage.
Chloe Grace Moretz retorts: “If you believe and are affected by an action movie, you shouldn’t see
‘Pocahontas’ because you’ll think you’re a Disney princess…if you see ‘Silence of the Lambs,’ you’ll think you’re a serial killer…If anything, these movies teach you what not to do.”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Kick-Ass 2” is a flimsy, floundering 4, one of the
stupidest sequels ever – with an additional mid-credits scene.
