Kick Ass 2 Quick Review (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

This film has been getting absolutely thrashed at Rotten Tomatoes. Frankly, it's not as good as the orignal, lacking some of the zany fun.. and it tries to reel itself in far too often. But when it gives up and just goes with the crazy moments, it does work.

I joked with someone that I tend to enjoy films like this more than I should - hell, I enjoyed Mystery Men as an effort to do something goofy.

My big comment would really be this: the film works well when Hit Girl is on the screen. It's pretty slow when she's not. It is definitely a film to see with an audience who will hoot and holler, although I normally avoid that, because it made my viewing experience much more enjoyable... though that's a YMMV.

C+/B-

 

[schan1269]

So, this is not a Godfather II...

 

[Robert Crawford]

You're right. They needed to released Hit Girl more in the film in which she killed so many people, you needed a calculator to tabulate the body count. Not an awful film and nowhere near as good as the first film, but I had some entertaining moments watching it.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Spoiler question for those who have seen it (the question contains a spoiler for the second comic series):

Spoiler

Is Katie's life destroyed in this? In the comics, she was never in a relationship with Dave, but her family was murdered and she was brutally raped because the villain knew Dave had liked her. With them having a relationship in the first movie, I'm hoping they didn't go there with the character.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Spoiler

I assume you're talking about Night Bitch, in this film she had a physical relationship with KIck Ass. The villain tried to rape her, but he couldn't get it up so he had his thugs beat her up. She did participate in the final fight showdown.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I'm talking about his girlfriend Katie from the first film. They could have turned her into that character, I guess, but it sounds like the scene I was talking about didn't happen. That's a relief.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm talking about his girlfriend Katie from the first film. They could have turned her into that character, I guess, but it sounds like the scene I was talking about didn't happen. That's a relief.

She only had a cameo in this film.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Thanks! Millar went a little far with that storyline, so dropping it was probably the best they could do.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The ending of this film suggests the following to me:

Spoiler

If there is a third film that Hit Girl will be old enough by then to be romantically involved with Kick Ass

 

[mattCR]

There is a lot of setup for a potential third film, with Kick Ass becoming far more of a "real" superhero, but whether or not the box office of this film allows for that is hard to know.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

I'm on the fence about seeing this. I liked the premise of the first one but it was so schizophrenic about the "real" world rules, i.e. first it was Hollywood action movie real, then really real, then standard comic book real that it was just okay. The reviews of this movie make it sound even worse for consistency.

 

[TravisR]

They needed to released Hit Girl more in the film in which she killed so many people, you needed a calculator to tabulate the body count.

I liked the movie well enough but that's what I was thinking too. The best part of the movie by far is the sequence when she's on top of the van wiping guys out so a lot more of that would have been a boost to the movie.

 

[mattCR]

I liked the movie well enough but that's what I was thinking too. The best part of the movie by far is the sequence when she's on top of the van wiping guys out so a lot more of that would have been a boost to the movie.

Yeah. Really, every sequence with Hit Girl really worked, even when she was her day character.. I quite enjoyed her Cheerleader Audition, which made me chuckle a bit, and her dressing down of the mean girls in the cafeteria was fun stuff. To me, Chloe Moretz just has real screen presence, and so when she was on screen delivering lines it worked.. there were some moments with other characters that were "OK" but none had the same punch as her on screen.... the Jim Carrey moments come closest, as his line delivery was quite good.

 

[TravisR]

...the Jim Carrey moments come closest, as his line delivery was quite good.

It's a shame that Jim Carrey wasn't happy with the movie's content because he was pretty good in it.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I enjoyed the first one and would like to see this one prior to the BD release, but I can wait. Is the general consensus here to wait for home video, or invest in the theatrical release?

 

[Tino]

This was supposed to come in #1 for the weekend but is being beaten handily by The Butler. From Deadline.com

By Pre-release tracking predicted that Universal’s superhero action-comedy Kick Ass 2 (playing in 2,940 theaters) would be the #1 film this weekend as it made steady gains in key areas with solid interest indicated from younger audiences and males in particular. Instead, it bombed with only $13.6M after looking to open #1, then #2, then #3 on Friday - trailing the Warner Bros/New Line holdover comedy We’re The Millers. Not even its ‘B+’ CinemaScore could help word of mouth after critics savaged it with only 29% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes because it fell short of the original. Fanboys decided to stay away. I predict debate will rage about whether this sequel based on Mark Millar/John S. Romita’s comic book was necessary. Even the 2010 original’s $19.8M opening was considered dismal, only to make up for it as a hot DVD sale and rental and digital download because of its R-rated irreverence and style. Wrongly, the studio believed “there was a committed fan base that could be activated as a core audience for a sequel,” as a Universal exec emailed me. So the studio handled worldwide distribution for the further adventures of Kick-Ass, Hit Girl and Red Mist (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz and Christopher Mintz-Plasse respectively). Vigilante crusader Colonel Stars and Stripes is played by Jim Carrey who kicked up a fuss by proclaiming he wouldn’t promote the film because of its ultra-violence. A few weeks later, he got onboard – but not before generating a ton of bad publicity for the pic. (He didn’t make himself very popular in Hollywood with this stunt. Let’s see if his career continues to crater.) From a screenplay by director Jeff Wadlow, pic also reteamed producers Matthew Vaughn, Adam Bohling, Tarquin Pack and David Reid. It was independently financed for only $28M, then acquired by Universal before production began in September of 2012. Film opens day-and-date in 18 international territories including the United Kingdom, France, and Germany and grossed $6.3M at 1,500 dates.l.

Edited to include expanded analysis

 

[Patrick Sun]

This sequel to "Kick Ass" was a lazy follow-up, with a script lacked that edge of nuttiness that made the first one watchable, plus the concluding act was so poorly set up and written. Didn't much care for this director's lack of style, very little pizzazz, even though it's a Matthew Vaughn production, it just didn't have that extra snap that Vaughn provides when he's the director.

In spite of a weird mixture of "Carrie/Heatherers/Mean Girls" for most of the Hit Girl subplot, Chloe Grace Moretz is the only one worth watching on the screen in this film.

I give it 2 stars, or a grade of C.

 

[Michael Elliott]

For a while I thought the theater had screwed up and was playing CARRIE.

In all seriousness, I thought the film started off downright horribly with the "story" just feeling rushed. The characters, the situations and everything just seemed to be thrown together without too much thought. The story never really picked up but I still like the three main characters. Travis mentioned it but it's really too bad that Carrey has turned his back on the film because this here is the best work he's done in years. The performances were all extremely good but man there were just way too many bad things. I thought the direction was pretty bad, the action scenes were rather ugly looking and way too shaky and it also didn't help that the violence did reach the vile spots at times. This might sound stupid coming from someone who watches some of the most violent films ever made but I think there were times it was just too graphic to be "entertaining."

I do agree that Hit Girl needs more screen time.

Back to the violence, I haven't been following the thread over at rogerebert.com but it seems to have gotten quite heated over the BOMB rating. I plan on reading it later but

Spoiler

I really thought the film was going to take a really bad turn when Moretz got taken to the woods. I was really expecting a rape sequence and I'm glad that the film didn't go in this direction to push her character back into the violence.

I also noticed that several message boards mentioning Moretz and pedofiles. It seems a lot of adults are attracting to this girl who is still a kid and I found it rather ironic, strange or whatever the word is when this is somewhat brought up in the movie so I wondered if the filmmakers were "questioning" some of the very people who were paying tickets to see the film.

** (out of 4)

 

[Ruz-El]

Left me flat too. Felt like the first film with it's balls cut off and tried to hard to catch up. It also looked and felt cheap compared to the first one, like a direct to video release. I blame not having Vaughn return as director.

I agree with everyone though that this was Hit GIrls film. Moretz was fantastic, without her the film would of been unbearable.

I enjoyed the first one and would like to see this one prior to the BD release, but I can wait. Is the general consensus here to wait for home video, or invest in the theatrical release?

I'd wait for the bluray to hit a sale. Spend your theater time with The World's End, that film is as exhilarating and fun to watch as the original Kick-Ass (though a completely different movie, obviously).