Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Jeff Wadlow (Cry_Wolf)
	Actors: Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Godzilla), Chloë Grace Moretz (Hugo), Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jim Carrey (The Truman Show, The Mask, Dumb & Dumber)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 12.09.2016, VOD, 32" TV
Synopsis: When becoming publicly the first real-life vigilante Kick-Ass, Dave (Taylor-Johnson) has started a trend that saw the birth of many other heroes, but then also of a super-villain.
Review: The first Kick-Ass by the excellent Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, X-men: First Class, Kingsman: The Secret Service) was timely asking the question of what would real-life vigilantes look like, after a decade of super-hero movies. Incidentally it was released at the same time as another movie on a similar topic: Super, which I totally loved in a very different style. It was also funny to read in the news around the same time reports of vigilantes helping the police in the USA.  Kick-Ass was portraying very realistic characters and including bright ideas like the metallic skeleton the hero gets after a car accident, making him more resistant to hits but still suffering very much from them. I remember reading mixed reviews about the sequel, explaining why it took me a while to watch it. The original concept is of course pushed further but I found the beginning of the movie too hesitant, and the following sometimes too obvious in its theme: can the side-kick Hit Girl (Grace Moretz) give up a violent life for a normal one? It is funny that the three main actors have double family name, indicating I think former child stars whose both parents want to have their name on movie posters. And the acting of Grace Moretz reminded me of the one of Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone) which is weird. The idea of a gang of exaggeratedly down-to-earth heroes is funny, and the supervision of Colonel Stars and Stripes (Carrey) promising, only to be (spoiler, highlight to read) destroyed when the man dies after two thirds of the movie. That was really a let-down. The ending is also relatively anti-climactic, leaving me with a feeling of emptiness towards the movie.
Rating: 4 /10