I just saw it last night. I give it :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: (out of 5)
[SPOILER ALERT]
What I found disturbing in this masterpiece is the use of an 11 year old girl as Hitgirl. This was also a brilliant choice at the same time. What I found disturbing was how she swore like a street whore and got off on killing. In one scene she is dressed up like a little school girl in a plaid skirt, white shirt and tie pulling a pink rolling suitcase which, by the way, is stock full of all kinds of weaponry. She pretends to be lost to enter the badguy lair. The 'doorman' lets her in because she is crying. She then puts a silenced pistol in his mouth to where the muzzle is bulging through the man's cheek. As they slowly turn around, the other bad guys in the lobby start to draw their guns when they notice this and she shoots one of them through the 'doorman's' cheek. As the doorman falls to the ground in pan, Hitgirl systematically kills the other bad guys in the lobby. Then she calmly walks towards the elevator but as she does so, without looking, she lowers her pistol and shoots the doorman on the floor as she walks by, killing him.
Now if that were Milla Jovovich or Angelina Jolie, I would have been like "w00t, that was sooo cool!!!" But the fact that Hitgirl was 11, gave it another level of emotion. Was it because I have 2 daughters and one is 11? That definitely added to the discomfort. But the lover of action movies in me knew a well choreographed kill scene when I saw it and it delivered in spades.
This is the whole movie in a nutshell for me. It hit on all cylinders on so many levels. If you were to dissect Kick-*** into the many genres it encompasses - a comedy, an action movie, a revenge drama, a teen love story, a superhero movie, etc., there was plenty in each to have it stand on their own merits. But the brilliance is putting it all together and having it congeal into such a wonderful multilevel experience. This all added to the connected feeling I had with the characters. I felt for them, with them.
This is true for the actual production itself. It was well written, photographed, choreographed, edited and the acting was great too. Character development was spot on for me. And it managed to steer away from being too Matrix-y. And I loved the Matrix series and the like. It just held my suspension of disbelief in a reality-based world which helped me relate to the characters much better. Was it over the top in the action scenes? Sure, but not to the level of so many other movies trying to emulate the Matrix feel. The use of the strobe feature in the weapon light was exactly they way I'd envisioned it being used. OK, there was one clip where Hitgirl threw some magazines up and reloaded her pistols mid-air, but everything else felt spot-on to me. And although there was plenty of aerobatics/acrobatics, it felt grounded more than the typical Chinese wire-work pieces which I adore so much in such movies a Crouching Tiger and many of my Jet Li favs.
I loved Kick-***. Period. It will go down as one of my all-time favorites. Alongside of The Matrix, The Last of the Mohicans, Seven Samurai, Shawshank Redemption, Kung-fu Hustle, Apocalypse Now, Hero and The Good, The Bad, The Ugly. And I will see it again in the theaters (I know I missed some things on the first go) as well as buy the Blu-Ray when it is released. It is not for everyone, but it struck a chord with me. It is dark and disturbing and fun at the same time. There is action with a solid story behind it.
... I'm wondering now what that says about me... :shakehead
