Kick-Ass

Quite possibly the most outrageous movie of the year, Kick-Ass is a roller coaster of action and violence, romance, and... Vigilantism?

Dave is a high schooler who hit rock bottom in his social scene, probably the most boring and nerdy guy you could meet. He and his friends would only go to the local comic store after school, and discuss this week's comics, characteristics of different super heroes, and complain about how Iron man should've built a stronger reactor to be able to defeat some foe, or how wolverine is a cocky idiot who lived to tell the tale. Dave would spend his whole life commiserating with his friends about how dead-end and useless their lives are.

But then, Dave decided to become a vigilante.

So what if he doesn't have super powers? Cops fight crime. They don't have an ounce of it! And so it begins. Dave sets out to catch the bad guys in the act with a crudely made and (to anyone else) embarrassing costume he purchased on ebay, only to have his balloon of self-esteem popped with a big knife. About the time he decides to give up, he learns of a much bigger battle to fight than petty crime. Big Daddy, a much superior vigilante, and his daughter, Hit-Girl, a 10-year-old Jason Bourne, want to bring mafia crime boss Frank D'Amico, along with his relentless reign of terror over the city, to a screeching stop. Dave, having absolutely no training in self-defense, or offense, of course wants to help! However, he is already number one on Frank's hit list. All the dead bad guys supposedly belong to Kick-Ass (Dave's vigilante name), when really, it's just that Big Daddy is too fast and covert to be seen on camera or by other people. But will Kick-Ass ever become a real crime-fighter, an actual threat to the foes he has avoided his whole life? Will he decide it is wrong and move to New Zealand, away from any trouble? Is this whole situation a fairly accurate analogy of human life? Maybe...

The movie starts out slow and really escalates, another element of danger, suspense, or humor after another, giving you much too think about. Kick-Ass has great special effects, it is cleverly written, and will keep you entertained for a couple of hours for sure!

"Kick-Ass"

Acting: 7

Story: 8

Cinematography: normal

Special effects: 7

Conclusion: 7.33

As for the impact the movie had on me... Well, apart from fantasizing all summer about becoming a vigilante, wondering the streets of Snohomish at night, stopping bad things from happening, I didn't like the movie nearly as much as I predicted I would. However, the movie is a somewhat accurate description of real life. Our country spends so much time complaining about how many terrible things happen, but rather than talking about it and making statistics and analyzing everything, let's pick up our act and fight a battle that has to be won. Obviously, I don't mean killing the bad guys, rather, fighting hate, depression, and anger with love, grace and compassion. So that part of it got me pretty excited, but other than that, the movie's unnecessarily sexual and filled with bad messages. I definitely wouldn't recommend it to a lot of people. Especially not you.

The Fringe: C