Kick-Ass 2010

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: It's a star-making role for Moretz, but everyone holds their own even in the face of their biggest enemy: lax pacing that makes this fun film drag and lurch. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Crude, bloody and moody, Kick-Ass embraces, at arm's length, its fanboy origins. But maybe they should have decided if they loved these stereotypes, or wanted to ridicule them to death before rolling the camera. Read more

A.O. Scott, At the Movies: I know it's all supposed to be tongue in cheek and lots of fun, but frankly this turned my stomach. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: "Kick-Ass" isn't just broken by its flaws ... It's flawed to start with, a hypocritical mess whose attempts to swagger turn into clumsy stumbling and whose knowing wink blinds it to its own problems. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Fast, periodically spit-funny and often grotesquely violent, the film at once embraces and satirizes contemporary action-film cliches with Tarantino-esque self-regard -- it's the latest in giggles-and-guts entertainment. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Kick-Ass is a compendium of all sleazy things, and it sings like a siren to our inner Tarantinos. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Kick-Ass stands as an intriguing fantasy of social networking. To achieve superhero status, you simply put up your own Web site, announce it on MySpace and Facebook and you're on your mythic way. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: A bizarre and ultimately self-sabotaging movie that defies categorization, Kick-Ass is at times cheap and cynical, while in other moments is ingenious and strangely noble. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: A film about wannabes who use attitude and bluster to emulate their inspirations, this ersatz blockbuster ends up seeming a little too much like its heroes. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: While not all of the elements fit together tonally, on the surface level -- the level that the title suggests -- Kick-Ass does exactly what it's supposed to, as long as you're game for the language and the gutting. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: At some point it becomes exactly the big, boneheaded movie it was making fun of in the first place. Read more

Jonathan Joe, Chicago Reader: A particularly timely story about civic-mindedness and the pursuit of fame. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This is the ultimate fanboy product. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: I started hating this movie around the midpoint. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: I found it mighty painful sitting through all the bone crushing and blood-letting. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: The film has the courage of its genre convictions. It doesn't have even a whiff of market testing. It does everything on its own terms, and in this age of McMansion movies, that's a super accomplishment. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Nicolas Cage is a hoot, a hollar and a fright as Damon Mac ready, a.k.a. Big Daddy. How can he be otherwise? He's a good cop gone mad. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Everything you've likely heard about Kick-Ass is true, providing you've heard it's profane, outlandish, ultra-violent, shocking, funny and wildly entertaining. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Is it a problem that Kick-Ass is by far the most violent movie ever to feature kids as heroes? Parents should consider themselves warned, though personally, I just wish that the film had ended up a bit less of an over-the-top action ride. Read more

C. Robert Cargill, Film.com: It will soon be a well-known part of the comic book movie pantheon. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Most of the lessons in Kick-Ass are juvenile, but Lordy are they stylishly told. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: It's as if all the arguments about these hyper-violent films -- why they are so popular, what they have done to our culture -- are open for business in one convenient location. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Vaughn cheerfully mines the queasiness of ... contradiction for satire, but the movie takes the reality of its characters seriously. When good guys die, their loss actually stings. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: When filmmakers nudge a child into viewing savagery as slapstick, are we not allowing them to do what we condemn in the pornographer -- that is, to coarsen and inflame? Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: If you're going to play this game, you have to keep doubling down. Kick-Ass can't. The fights never grow in complexity; halfway through, the director has nothing to add. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: [It] thinks it's so brave and bold. But it's more like the title character, a dweeb who just thinks he's tough. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Prepare for amazement: This thing makes Nicolas Cage cool again. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Kick-Ass has punk energy, ace action moves, and a winning sense of absurdist fun. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Kick-Ass earns its name in every way. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Let's say you're a big fan of the original comic book, and you think the movie does it justice. You know what? You inhabit a world I am so very not interested in. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: A mosh pit of a comic-book movie that dares you to dive into its anarchy. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It brings together several popular strains of contemporary moviemaking and combines them into one big, shameless, audacious, compulsively watchable, irresistibly likable piece of pure entertainment. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: What do these characters consider worthy of killing and dying for? That a protagonist lacks superpowers is no reason for him to lack motivation, conviction, or purpose. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Kick-Ass is a guilty pleasure of the highest order, a guns-blazing, media-savvy superhero comedy designed to thrill geeks and outrage prudes. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: This is the most brazenly funny bloodbath unleashed on the public since Pulp Fiction. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Kick-Ass is some kind of twisted fun. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The film is post-modern surgery into the superhero myth, driving a scalpel into the warped logic of misanthropic killers who masquerade as civic do-gooders. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: It soars, jet-propelled, on its central idea of matching a superhero's exploits with the grinding reality of urban teen life and on the aerodynamic smoothness of the film's style. Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: Vaughn directs with efficiency and a good sense of action while Johnson puts in an engaging turn that maintains sympathy and helps paper over some of the plot's more jerky, episodic aspects. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Peppering an action flick with comedy is hardly original, but the mocking tone and off-kilter vibe set this film apart. It even has a hearty dose of charm, thanks mostly to the most outrageous performance by a child in recent memory. Read more

Joe Leydon, Variety: Kick-Ass offers some genuinely clever observations about the creation of celebrity in a world where viral video clips and latenight talkshow quips can turn attention seekers into overnight sensations (and inadvertent role models). Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: Never as shocking as it thinks it is, as funny as it should be, or as engaged in cultural critique as it could be. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Suggested subtitle: Iron Man, You Just Got Served. Read more