KICK-ASS – matthew vaughn – 7.0 / 10

Though it’s being touted as some sort of critique or satirization of the comic book-based superhero blockbusters that have taken over the multiplex in recent years, Kick-Ass, perhaps unsurprisingly, wants to have its cake and eat it too, to be both a satire and a straight-up superhero movie. And for a while, when the critique is confined to the half of the film featuring Kick-Ass and the superhero stuff confined to the half of the film featuring Hit Girl and Big Daddy, this tactic sorta works. But, inevitably, Kick-Ass, the ‘superhero’ alter ego of uber-nerd Dave Lizewski, despite spending the first two-thirds of the film proving just how stupid the idea of donning spandex and fighting crime really is, ultimately saves the day and in the process completely undercuts anything interesting the film was trying to say.