KICK-ASS

Kick-Ass, briskly adapted by British director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) from Mark Millar’s savage comic, has a lot on its mind. Our self-admittedly bland high-school hero, Dave (the likeable Johnson), buys a scuba suit and quickly finds himself gut-stabbed by amused thugs.. Dave dangerously accrues fame through a cruddy viral video, resulting in plenty of innocent carnage. Meanwhile, real-life criminals get pissed off and the laughs start to hang in your throat. By the time we get around to a stunning 11-year-old (Chloe Moretz) chopping the legs off goons with amoral glee, it’s hard to miss the subversive point—that ass-kicking fantasies make more sense as the ambitions of sugar-addled kids. (Expect gasps.) The emotions, however, are adult-sized: A paternal turn from Nicolas Cage is an overwrought hoot.—Time Out New York