Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated R for strong brutal violence throughout, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some drug use - some involving children
Official Sites: Lionsgate [United States], Official Facebook
Country: UK, USA
Language: English
Release Date: (UK) 22nd March 2010
Box Office
Budget:
$30,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend:
£3,881,704 (UK) (4 April 2010) (402 Screens)
Gross:
$48,043,505 (USA) (27 June 2010)
Company Credits
Production Co: Marv Films, Plan B Entertainment
Technical Specs
Runtime: 117 minutes
117 min
Sound Mix: DTS, Dolby Digital, SDDS
Color: Color
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1
Awards
8 Wins
29 Nominations
Cast
Script Development
• Aaron Johnson as David "Dave" Lizewski / Kick-Ass: Lead role; geeky ‘nobody’, creates superhero persona.
• Nicolas Cage as Damon Macready / Big Daddy: Ex-police officer-turned assassin.
• Chloë Grace Moretz as Mindy Macready / Hit-Girl: Daughter of Damon Macready / Big Daddy.
• Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris D'Amico / Red Mist: Frank D'Amico's son.
• Mark Strong as Frank D'Amico: The head of a criminal organization.
• Lyndsy Fonseca as Katie Deauxma: Dave's longtime crush and eventual girlfriend.
• Michael Rispoli as Big Joe
• Kofi Natei as Rasul: A gang leader whom Dave (as Kick-Ass) challenges until Hit-Girl arrives to kill the gang members.
• Katrena Rochell as Female Junkie
• Yancy Butler as Angie D'Amico: Frank's wife and Chris' mother.
• Jason Flemyng as Lobby Goon: The building doorman.
• Elizabeth McGovern as Alice Lizewski, Dave's mother.
• Garrett M. Brown as James Lizewski, Dave's father.
• Sophie Wu as Erika Cho: Katie's best friend.
• Dexter Fletcher as Cody
• Clark Duke and Evan Peters as Marty Eisenberg and Todd Haynes: Dave's two best friends.
• Xander Berkeley as Detective Victor "Vic" Gigante: A police officer working for D'Amico.
• Omari Hardwick as Sergeant Marcus Williams: Former partner of Damon Macready.
• Deborah Twiss as Mrs. Zane: Dave's English teacher.
• Craig Ferguson as Himself
• John Romita, Jr. as Atomic Comics barista
Vaughn says, "We wrote the script and the comic at the same time so it was a very sort of collaborative, organic process. I met [Millar] at the premiere of Stardust. We got on really well. I knew who he was and what he had done but I didn't know him. He pitched me the idea. I said, 'That's great!' He then wrote a synopsis. I went, 'That's great, let's go do it now! You write the comic, I'll write the script.'"
Jane Goldman, one of the screenwriters, said that when she works with Vaughn, she does the "construction work" and the "interior designing", while Vaughn acts as the "architect."
Other Windows - The Game
Kick-Ass: The Game is a beat 'em up developed by Frozen Codebase and published by WHA Entertainment in 2010. It is based on the movie and comic book Kick-Ass.
The gameplay of Kick-Ass is an arena-style beat 'em up. Players can choose to play 1 of 3 characters (Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl or Big Daddy) in either single player or co-op mode. Weapon upgrades as well as environment finishers are always available in the game. The game utilizes both joysticks on the PlayStation 3 and is a "Twin-stick shooter" for the iPhone.
Unlike the comic book and movie, the video game story line introduces all three characters from the start. When Kick-Ass first tries to be a superhero, the thugs beat him. Hit Girl and Big Daddy appear and attack the thugs. The game begins after Kick-Ass is freed from the thugs. The circumstances of the storyline differ depending on which character the player selects. For instance in the film Frank D'Amico's men kidnap Kick-Ass and Big Daddy. In the game's storyline, this would not be possible if the player selects Big Daddy as his or her character, so in that event the game would instead have Hit Girl be kidnapped.
Details
Filming
The opening sequence with Nicholas Cage was filmed in a sewage plant in East London, whilst other filming locations included Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Dip ‘N’ Sip Donuts on Kingston Road in Toronto; Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School; ‘many Toronto landmarks that play cameos’; and various locations in the UK, including Elstree Studios.
Mike Malve, friend of John Romita Jr, was asked by Miller for permission to use Atomic Comics in the film, which was based on his real chain.
A model version of Atomic Comics was created at the London pilot studio for use in the filming.
The Hollywood studios refused to finance "Kick-Ass," so its writer-director Matthew Vaughn decided to make it independently. It took him just two weeks to raise the $35 million to make the movie, half from his own pocket and half from private investors.
"Every studio, every single person in Hollywood who could have financed the film, they all said flat-out 'no' ... The movie was about superheroes, sure, but it wasn't a remake or a sequel, and that made it risky", says Mr Vaughn.
Finance
Kick-Ass was based on the comic book written by Mark Millar and illustrated by John Romita, Jr, which was published by Marvel Comics under the company’s Icon imprint.
It is the story of Dave Lizewski, a teenager who sets out to become a real-life superhero, calling himself ‘Kick-Ass’.
After getting caught up with ruthless vigilatntes Hit-Girl and Big Daddy, who are on a mission to take down the gangster John Genovese (later changed to Frank D’Amico for the film), can Dave fulfil his life-long dream after all?
The Idea
The Posters
There were bound to be a plethora of posters created for Kick-Ass, as there was such a colourful cast of characters, and the marketing team certainly delivered on that front.
Red Mist, Kick-Ass himself, Hit-Girl and Big Daddy each had their own batch of teasers placed in the most clichéd of super-hero poses, that of standing atop a building and looking over the city they’ve sworn to protect triumphantly and with a sense of entitlement and ownership.
A second batch was also made, which featured each individual character again, but this time in different poses and with more colour-coded backgrounds.
Each included its own little saying, which deflated the idea of them actually having superpowers, but did emphasize what they could do despite this.
For example, Kick-Ass’ poster says ‘I can’t fly. But I can kick your ass.’ and so on.
This created a steady stream of publicity on movie blogs and elsewhere, which kept the movie in the audience’s mind and kept them talking about the release.
A theatrical poster took the same visual style as the last of the teaser series, with the phrase, ‘Shut up. Kick ass.’ at the bottom, which finishes the poster component of the campaign off nicely, as it certainly looks like the kind of image that might be created for a comic trade paperback and is pretty cool.
Special Effects
Kick-Ass 2 is the sequel to Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.'s original comic book series, Kick-Ass. The story follows the main character, Kick-Ass, who is trying to form a team of "real life" superheroes, while concurrently preparing for the arrival of The Red Mist; an enemy character who has been gathering a team of "supervillains" in order to defeat both Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl.
The film based on this is set to be released in July 2013, and is very much the same storyline -
'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.'
Kick-Ass co-writers Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman (Vaughn also directed) are passing on the followup to work on X-Men: First Class 2. Their replacement is writer/director Jeff Wadlow (Never Back Down); a candidate who’s inspired more wariness than high hopes.
Nonetheless, there are still healthy levels of interest (and excitement) from fans looking forward to Kick-Ass 2.
1. "Stand Up" The Prodigy
2. "Kick Ass (We Are Young)" Mika vs. RedOne
3. "Can't Go Back" Primal Scream
4. "There's a Pot a Brewin'" The Little Ones
5. "Omen" The Prodigy
6. "Make Me Wanna Die" The Pretty Reckless
7. "Banana Splits (Kick-Ass Film Version)" The Dickies
8. "Starry Eyed" Ellie Goulding
9. "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" Sparks
10. "We're All in Love" The New York Dolls
11. "Bongo Song" Zongamin
12. "Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (For a Few Dollars More)" Ennio Morricone
13. "Bad Reputation" The Hit Girls
14. "An American Trilogy" Elvis Presley
Other Windows - Kick-Ass 2
Kick-Ass received mostly positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 76% based on 229 reviews, with an average score of 7.0/10.
Rotten Tomatoes' selected top critics gave the film a rating of 85% based on 13 reviews.
Philip Frenchcalled the film "relentlessly violent" with "the foulest mouthed child ever to appear on screen, [who makes] Louis Malle's Zazie sound like Cosette" and one "extremely knowing in its appeal to connoisseurs of comic strips and video games", whilst writing for The Guardian's Sunday associate paper, The Observer.
David Cox, also from The Guardian, noted that the film "kicks the c-word into the mainstream...inadvertently dispatch[ing] our last big expletive."
The film debuted in the number one position in DVD and Blu-ray sales – as well as the top movie download on iTunes since its release August 3rd.
There was (an understandable) fan boy and girl fervor in anticipation of the film. One which lead credence to the notion that Kick Ass would strike it big opening weekend – and by big I mean projections forecast a $35 million open weekend – for a film that cost $25 million to make.
Kick Ass felt like a film that was destined to be misunderstood in its initial release and then appreciated by a large cult audience as time progressed. The kids who could not get their parents to take them to the movie can now buy the DVD. Those who balk at $10 in the theater seem okay with $15 spent on the more permanent DVD or $25 for a Blu-ray.
Kick Ass: Music from the Motion Picture was released in the United Kingdom on 29 March 2010, and in the United States on iTunes on 30 March 2010.
The title song is sung by Mika, co-written by Jodi Marr and produced by RedOne.
The video for the single shows Mika as a helpless individual left in an alleyway after being mugged. He begins to sing and as he does, the words of empowerment in the lyrics and his finding of an issue of the Kick-Ass comic inspire him to run for the rooftops and wail the chorus to the sky. The video also features intercut scenes from the film.
The song "Stand Up" by The Prodigy is featured in both the teaser trailer and the red band trailer.
A song featured in the film, but not on the soundtrack is "Crazy", by Gnarls Barkley. This song is played in the Mistmobile while Kick-Ass and Red Mist cruise around town together. Also, the version of "Bad Reputation" used in the film was by Joan Jett but the version on the soundtrack was by a band called "The Hit Girls".
The song "Hey Little World" by The Hives, which played in the theatrical trailers was also not included.
Other Windows - The Soundtrack
Sales & Reception