Kick-ass -2010- -

In an era now dominated by the slick, quip-heavy machinery of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which was just launching with Iron Man 2 the same summer), Kick-Ass arrived not as a polished product, but as a Molotov cocktail. Based on John Romita Jr. and Mark Millar’s comic, Matthew Vaughn’s film is a profane, hyper-violent, and surprisingly tender deconstruction of the question every bullied kid has asked: Why doesn’t someone just put on a costume and stop the bad guys?

Director: Matthew Vaughn Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Chloë Grace Moretz, Mark Strong, Christopher Mintz-Plasse kick-ass -2010-

A foul-mouthed, heart-wrenching, and gloriously irresponsible masterpiece. It makes you believe that anyone could be a hero, provided they’re willing to lose a few teeth, a few pints of blood, and possibly their sanity. Now go watch the warehouse scene again. You know you want to. In an era now dominated by the slick,

delivers one of his most wonderfully unhinged yet disciplined performances as Damon Macready / Big Daddy. He channels Adam West’s campy 1960s Batman—complete with the staccato "Ehhh-excellent!"—but uses it to mask a broken, vengeful father. It’s a meta-layer that works beautifully: a comic book fanatic who literally becomes his childhood hero, then weaponizes it. You know you want to

After a lengthy, nerve-damaging recovery, he tries again. This time, a chance encounter with some thugs is caught on camera, and "Kick-Ass" becomes a YouTube sensation. But his clumsy heroism attracts the attention of two very different entities: a father-daughter vigilante duo, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), who are waging a one-family war against local crime lord Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong); and D’Amico’s awkward son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who dons a green and yellow costume to become the villain "Red Mist" to infiltrate and destroy Kick-Ass from within. Aaron Taylor-Johnson does a deceptively difficult job as Dave. He’s not a cool hero; he’s a desperate, lonely kid whose primary superpower is an insane tolerance for pain. Taylor-Johnson perfectly captures the gap between Dave’s fantasy of being a hero and the reality of crying, bleeding, and begging for help.