2 out of 5

Director: Matthew Vaughn

This is a great idea, and the movie is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it is overall rather empty of value, and unlike more mindless action films that know they can coast by on cool explosions and chases, Kick-A– tries, sort of, to create something more it really just cant achieve. For those unawares, Kick-A– is about a teen comic book fan who realizes that nothing prevents him from buying a superhero-costume-looking wetsuit and walking around town in it. Furthermore, with a dose of machismo and some whacking sticks, maybe he can actually do some good. Of course, when he runs afoul of the mob and some real Batman-like superhero types, he gets in a little over his head. To address, first, the violence: I liked it. If you took away the blood and guns and just made this a story of young kids dressing up to take down baddies, some parents would condemn it, but many would applaud its encouragement of teamwork or something. So I enjoyed this riff on that: this is that concept gibbed up a bit and over-realized. Taken in this sense, the action is fun. And the film is nicer to its characters (and thus its viewer) than the comic was, even if the subplot with the girl was a bit overkill (in both mediums). It was due to this meanness that I found the comic devoid of value – writer Mark Millar had a great idea… but where do you take it? The Big Daddy and Hit Girl team are almost a Deux Ex Machina, but again, where do you take it? And this works a bit better in the film thanks to the hyper colors and music (the whole experience is a bit distracting), but somewhere during one of the extended fights, I realized that the movie, similarly, didnt matter one bit, and I didnt feel any gain from having seen it. It is enjoyable in an incredibly ephemeral sense. Nic Cages best role of late, and the two lead kids to a great job. Does it mean anything? No. So Im not sure how you want to spend your 117 minutes.