Kick Ass (2010) : Who’s Your Daddy ? [Mike’s Review]
Today on Cage Club we clean up the streets in Kick Ass. Cage is back in comic book fighting form once again, pretty close after just bringing the superhero Ghost Rider to life. It’s great to see Cage involved in the sudden influx of comic book adaptations. The property of Kick Ass is a little different than your average Marvel or DC character though. The source material for this movie is much more of an R rated comic. It was written by Mark Millar who’s works include Wanted and The Kingsman, also major hollywood motion pictures. His material is know for being more extreme and violent as well as heavy on the satire. His heroes tend to not have powers or at least realize the absurdity of actually being a super hero. Kick Ass in particular is almost a parody of other superheroes as it explores just how bad an idea it is to try and become something like Batman. The movie also draws heavily upon establish superhero films like Spiderman, Superman and X-Men to riff and play on our preconceived expectations. The movie does a good job subverting those expectations by doing things like having the hero fail and almost die his first day on parol, and also by turning a sweet little girl into a mass murdering version of Robin the Boy Wonder. While Miller operates out of his own creator owned label, Kick Ass and others are distributed through a Marvel imprint so I guess technically this is a Marvel movie like Ghost Rider, just not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Cage plays Damon Macready aka Big Daddy. Damon was a super cop with his partner Marcus, much like real life 70’s Supercops Dave Greenberg and Robert Hantz who went by the street names of Batman and Robin. Mob Boss Frank D’Amico approached Damon to be on his pay role and become a dirty cop but was denied, so he framed Damon with drugs, sending him to prison. While in the joint, his pregnant wife tried to take her own life, but the baby survived. Once Damon got free, he raised his daughter Mindy to be a crime fighter. He made a game out of it and started the brainwashing that would prepare her to become a full fledged child assassin. Damon took the name Big Daddy and dresses like Batman, while his daughter, Mindy, goes by Hit Girl and looks like a purple clad version of Robin. Together they clean up the streets in New York City by targeting the Mob that Frank runs, taking out his gang one by one until they eventually come for him.
This is all B-Story. Cage as Big Daddy is really one of the secondary characters in the movie. The main Character is a kid named Dave that gets the idea to become a superhero and names himself Kick Ass after buying a wet suit on line. He goes on patrol with no training and gets his ass kicked and put in the hospital. Once he recovers he still wants to fight crime, and now with his reinforced bones and dulled nerve endings, he has as much a power as possible in this world based on the laws of reality. In his endeavors he crosses paths with Hit Girl and Big Daddy who say he has potential and keep an eye on him. Kick Ass gets a hit put out on him because the Mob mistakes him for Big Daddy and all his interference with Mafia business. Chris, the son of the Mob Boss, becomes Red Mist, a cool superhero that gains the trust of Kick Ass only to lead him to Big Daddy so they can trap them, and kill them online to show that being a superhero is bad for your health. Bid Daddy and Kick Ass are beaten near death when Hit Girl comes to the rescue, but it’s too late for Daddy as he’s been burned alive. In his last moments he tells Hit Girl that he is proud and loves her before he dies. But he doesn’t die for nothing and Kick Ass and Hit Girl rally for one last assault on the D’Amico compound where they take him out once and for all.
I found this movie to be really fun and effective as both an action super hero movie and a dark comedic satire of the comic book movie genre that has permitted Hollywood over the last decade. Cage is terrific in this and really shines, practically stealing the movie and every scene he is in. He is great in this dual role as Damn and Big Daddy. Both are complete and unique characters. Damon dresses like a middle aged dad and looks almost frail in the way he carries himself, where as once he puts on the Big Daddy suit his demeanor and body language completely change. It’s very much as if the costume makes the man, as well as the voice that Cage uses. It’s as if he is channeling Adam West from the 1966 Batman show when he talks as Big Daddy. The is no voice harmonizer or anything, just the change in cadence in the way he talks from his normal manner outside of the mask.
That does it for Kick Ass !!! Next up Cage slips on his Magic ring and searches the ages for an apprentice that will help him save the world in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
Mike
@the_mikestir
