By Renee’ Collins
Rating: 2 (Out of 5 Reels)
I hoped the latest installment of Kick-Ass would be as good if not better than the first but alas, we don’t always get what we want. The costumed high-school hero Kick-Ass joins with a group of normal citizens who have been inspired to fight crime in costume. Meanwhile, the Red Mist plots an act of revenge that will affect everyone Kick-Ass knows (IMDB).
The two main characters, Kick-Ass (Davi Lizewski) and Hit-Girl (Mindy Macready) are back in this latest installment. They were my favorite characters in the first film because the entire plotline was primarily based on them. However, this time there are many others involved which made for an unfocused and crowded mess. Not only are Chris D’Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and Detective Marcus Williams (Morris Chestnut) back but a slew of other characters which is part of the problem with this film. There are so many things going on with each character that it creates a sort of chaos which is not good for this film in my opinion.
The only over the top special effects in this film is the creativity used in killing which I don’t particularly care for in this case. In the first installment that creativity added to the uniqueness of the film and I enjoyed it but here it is taken way too far and is unnecessary. This film for me was too unfocused, over acted, gory and lacked focus. It is unfortunate because I was lucky enough to see the first installment at the South by Southwest Film Festival and loved it but I also enjoyed the vibe of the audience as we watched the film which I did not experience this time. I would not recommend catching it on cable.