Review of Kick-Ass 2 (2013) by Grace B — 15 Feb 2014

The satire from the first film has gone but the characters & over the top violence remain in this sequel which isn't nearly as good as the first movie, but isn't altogether that bad either.

Dave/Kick-Ass is still a high school student by day and vigilante superhero by night, but he's grown up and not so geeky in this. Mindy/Hit Girl is also grown up and going through puberty, leading to a huge segment of this film feeling like outtakes from Mean Girls. It does make for one of the movies funnier moments though.

The story mostly follows Chris/Red Mist, seeking revenge for his fathers death as he vies to become the ultimate super-villain (The Motherfucker) and hires an army of costumed baddies to achieve this, in turn forcing Kick Ass to form his own cadre.

As far as sequels go, this isn't by any means terrible, but it lacks the freshness of the first film, misses Nicolas Cage's character and with Hit Girl grown up, it's not shocking or funny when she uses the C-bomb like it was the first movie. I personally think Mystery Men was a better movie and it's a shame it went under the radar when it was released.

I also have to mention that I had no idea Jim Carrey was in this until the end credits. Now that is strange.