Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

  I read several disparaging reviews before seeing this movie, but honestly, I don't know what the fuss was all about.  People said that it was ridiculously violent and that it had mixed messages about violence and that the female characters set terrible examples for women.  Maybe I'm just stupid but I thought that was kind of the whole point.

Dave Lizewski aka Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is trying to get Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) to teach him how to be a better super-hero.  But when her adoptive dad Marcus (Morris Chestnut) finds that she's been skipping school in order to continue fighting crime, he puts his foot down.  No more costumes, no more masks.  As just Mindy Macready, she will have to face the evils of high school without her butterfly knives.  Kick-Ass scours the Internet for like-minded people in her absence and joins Justice Forever, led by Colonel Stars-and-Stripes (Jim Carrey), a former mob enforcer turned born-again Christian. 

It's not all feeding the homeless and beating up human traffickers, though.  Chris D'Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), formerly Red Mist, is still seething over the murder of his father.  With the help of his aide Javier (John Leguizamo), Chris becomes the first super-villain, The Motherfucker, and begins recruiting bad guys to his side. 

Dave is very nearly relegated to side character in his own movie, since Hit Girl's story arc gets at least half of the runtime.  This was a smart decision, considering that she was a fan favorite after Kick-Ass.  Moretz is more than capable of holding an entire movie by herself but, if they make a third one, I would like to see her and Dave's characters teaming up through the entire thing.  Their scenes together were the best part of the entire movie.

If you liked the first one, you'll enjoy the sequel.  It's not quite as good but still well worth watching.  The only part that I found even slightly disagreeable was the "sick stick".  You'll know it when you see it.  However, even that was ameliorated by the guy one row back in the theater who announced that he had just lost his appetite.  Normally I don't approve of people adding their editorials during a film but that was hilarious.  Also, there is an end credits scene so make sure you stick around.