Butler's Cinema Scene

“KICK-ASS 2”  My rating: C (Opening wide on Aug. 16)

103 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“Kick-Ass 2” is a letdown, a mean-spirited and puerile sequel that leaves you stranded between giggling and gagging.

But I’m not sorry to have seen it for one reason: Chloe Grace Moretz.

Moretz was only 12 in 2009 when she appeared in the first “Kick-Ass” as Mindy Macready, a little girl trained by her vigilante father to suit up in purple Spandex and fight crime under the name of Hit-Girl. The novelty of seeing this petite child stomping the hell out of viscious adults (and lobbing ear-stinging profanities) was memorable, to say the least.

In the intervening four years — during which she turned in a brilliant performance as a child vampire in “Let Me In” and had a big role in Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” — Moretz has grown up considerably.  She’s becoming a beautiful young woman (small wonder that this film often features looming closeups emphasizing her hazel eyes and full lips) and this lends a whole new aspect to her Hit-Girl persona.

To put it bluntly, she’s now a dirty old man’s dream teen.

Not that she’ll be making a career of that. She’s too talented. But her presence in “K-A 2” announces that as she matures she’s going to be a major star. Bet on it.

Despite Moretz, this new film has two strikes against it. First, even fans of the “Kick-Ass” comic books acknowledge that while the initial series was terrific, the followup was awful.

And, second, the first movie benefitted from the direction of Matthew Vaughn, the guy behind the nifty Brit crime film “Layer Cake” and, later, “X-Men: First Class.”  For “K-A 2” he’s been replaced by Jeff Wadlow, who with his third feature doesn’t yet demonstrate the tonal control needed to keep the yarn’s amusing and appalling elements in balance.

Aaron Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz

The plot finds high school dweeb Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), who in the first film created the crime-fighting alter-ego Kick-Ass, joining up with a team of costumed vigilantes played by (among others) Donald Faison and Steven Mackintosh. This band is led by a former mob enforcer turned good guy who now calls himself Colonel Stars and Stripes…he’s played by Jim Carrey with so much disguising makeup that I didn’t recognize the actor until the final credits.

Moretz’s Mindy, who was orphaned in the original go-round, now lives with her late father’s best bud, NYPD Det. Marcus Williams (Morris Chestnut), who is totally unaware that she hasn’t been to school in a year and spends her days prowling the streets for crooks to thrash and/or kill (told you it was mean spirited).

Also returning from the first film is Christopher Mintz-Plasse as  Chris D’Amico, the dweeby son of a mob boss killed by Kick-Ass. Left with his father’s ill-gotten millions, Chris seeks revenge by creating his own army of costumed criminals who square off against our good guys.  

Jim Carrey

There are a couple of digressions. Dave has a romance with a fellow vigilante who calls herself Night Bitch (Lindy Booth). And Mindy, who is far more comfortable with kicks to the groin than interpersonal relationships, falls prey to a nasty bunch of high school Heathers.

The acting is fine, as far as it goes (hard to believe that Johnson is the same actor who played the uber-romantic Vronsky in the Kiera Knightley “Anna Karenina”…he’s nothing if not versatile).

But the film has an ugly soul, merciless killing off innocent and/or good-guy characters, then expecting us to laugh at a particularly innovative bit of mayhem. Showers should be installed by the exits.

In fact, Carrey Tweeted a few months back that he had made the “Kick-Ass 2” before the Sandy Hook shootings and “now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence.” Though I bet he cashed the check. 

| Robert W. Butler