Jane Goldman aka Mrs Jonathan Ross wrote the screenplay for Kick Ass (2010) together with its director Matthew Vaughn and it was a huge hit. The film appealed to me enormously, along with anyone else who can see the funny side of watching an eleven-year-old girl — played by the then unknown Chloë Grace Moretz — beat up bad guys and spit out shocking expletives.
Her cop father aka Big Daddy (forgive the numerous aliases, but everyone has one in Kick Ass) was grooming Mindy aka Hit Girl for a life as a vigilante.
But he then went and died. This was a blow for Nicholas Cage, who regained his long-lost cred by appearing in Kick Ass, but an even bigger blow for orphaned Mindy, who in the sequel is being forced to play nice with the nasty girls at school and to stop fighting crime.
Without his spectacular Pink-wigged side-kick, dorky masked avenger Kick Ass aka Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has no choice but to join up with budget crew Justice Forever, who are led by Colonel Stars and Stripes (an unrecognisable Jim Carrey doing an Arnie impression).
With both vigour and violence, the plot takes better shape in Jeff Wadlow’s accomplished sequel when nasty brat Chris D’Amico aka Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) starts plotting revenge for the death of his crime boss father, which he blames on Kick Ass.
Dressed in his mum’s fetish wear, Red Mist obviously needs a gang of evil helpers and a new name to get even, but his chosen moniker is not one you’ll see in this family paper, so you’ll have to see the film to find out.
You might also be thinking about taking the little ones to see Disney’s Planes this week. If so, be warned.
This film — a Cars follow-up about an ambitious little crop duster in a race across the globe — is really a flight mechanic’s manual in disguise. Yawn.
In my version of Planes, BA, Ryanair and El Al jets have a heated debate at 30,000 feet.
Not one for the kids, I’ll grant you. But unless your son works for EasyJet, neither is this.
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