Kick-Ass 2 suffers from being a little too real. Out of the cinema, the joke's inappropriate. "Aaron Johnson is Kick-Ass" "Christopher Mintz-Plasse is _", with The Motherfucker's name blacked out for decency's sake. "Kick-Ass 2 … Jim Carrey is Colonel Stars and Stripes", reads the banner. After the screening, a promotional poster for the film hangs outside in the foyer. There's a difference between a self-deluding egotist like The Motherfucker being violently offensive ("He's little and he kills – we'll call him Tumour") and Hit Girl - mid-battle - attempting the same thing ("I'm gonna go Saudi Arabia on your ass and cut your hands off").įrom the earnest discussions on self-belief to the glorified bloody fight scenes, the real world hits a little too heavy in Wadlow's spirited, but misguided sequel. "This is not a comic book", says Kick-Ass. Kick-Ass 2's violence is no more brutal than the original's, but by attempting to lock the action into the drama of real-life, Wadlow inadvertently adds a layer of grit that makes the carnage less comic and more distasteful. Photograph: UniversalĪnd Carrey might have had a point. Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars and Stripes in Kick-Ass 2. Ironically - given his condemnation of this same film's violence in June this year - he's believably beefy in the fight scenes too. Carrey's experienced in wobbling along the line between comedy and melancholy. He's a snarl-lipped born again Christian with a dog called Eisenhower and a cudgel painted with the American flag. The tone fits a lot of the cast as awkwardly as a homemade costume, but Jim Carrey as vigilante good guy Colonel Stars and Stripes wears it well. You'd expect more from a tween trained by her daddy to take bullets to the chest before home-time. Self-doubt has run riot in the Batman, Superman and X-men franchises of late. But this intriguing fish out of water element - Easy A v Kill Bill! - is allowed to wander into melancholic life lessons about the nature of difference and the triumph in being yourself. Hit Girl attempts to befriend her high school's queen bee and suffers her first experience of back-stabbing that's wholly figurative. The setup sounds as delightfully silly as Goldman and Vaughn's original, but Wadlow's script lacks the pair's confidence in following its funniest ideas through. His alias? The Motherfucker.Īaron Taylor-Johnson and Chloë Grace Moretz as Kick-Ass and Hit Girl in Kick-Ass 2. Meanwhile D'Amico's orphaned son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), is acting out – he's splashing cash on recruiting a gang of supervillains to takedown Kick-Ass. Kick-Ass has hooked up with Justice Forever, an amateur heroics society led by reformed gangster Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey). Hit Girl is taking time out to try being a normal teenager. It's four years since Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor Johnson) and Hit Girl defeated drug kingpin Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong). It's a have-a-go affair that tries out the same blend of red-blooded action and salty-blue humour, but serves mainly to bolster the bravery of the original.
Kick-Ass 2 – handed to writer/director Jeff Wadlow by Vaughn and co-writer Jane Goldman – is significantly less confident and less brazen. Put bluntly, Hit Girl would have no problem squaring up to the Wolverine, the Man of Steel and the Avengers and calling them the c-word. The pomposity of the classic superhero story was given a beating. Honour and justice were bustled into the background. There was a starring role for a Chloë Grace Moretz's Hit Girl, an 11-year old assassin with a taste for blood and a knack for profanity. There was gore, there was death, there were swearwords.
The action comedy – about a dorky teen who re-models himself as the titular crime-fighter – tackled the blockbusting phoniness of most comic book adaptations head on. With hindsight Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass was a rare treat: a graphically violent, hysterically rude superhero film. Rest for the allotted time, then repeat until you have completed four sets of each move and move on to the next superset.įor more about personal trainer Matt Hodges visit mphfitness.Watch the trailer for Kick-Ass 2 .uk Day 5 – bodyweight conditioningĬomplete one set of both exercises in the supersets without resting. Whether you do steady-state or interval training, keep it to under 20 minutes. Use this day for a cardio session to relax the central nervous system. Rest for the allotted time, then repeat until you have completed three sets of each move and move on to the next superset. Kick-Ass 2 is a 2013 black comedy superhero film written and directed by Jeff Wadlow.It is based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.The film serves as a sequel to 2010s Kick-Ass. Complete one set of both exercises in the supersets without resting.