Kick-Ass

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Matthew Vaughn directs. Ben Davis behind the camera. John Murphy scores. Pietro Scalia cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Made its money back 3.4× over at the box office.
• 2Released 16 years ago.
• 3International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
• 4Part of the "Kick-Ass Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
• 5Directed by Matthew Vaughn, shot by Ben Davis. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 6Original score by John Murphy. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 7Editor Pietro Scalia shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 8Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Chloë Grace Moretz and Nicolas Cage carry the top of the cast.
• 9Marketing tagline: "Shut up. Kick-ass.".
• 10IMDB entry: tt1250777 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 1112,695 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
• 12Classified under 19 themes, including "hero", "secret identity", "crime fighter", "superhero".

The technical file

Cinematography

Ben Davis

Original score

John Murphy

Editing

Pietro Scalia

Production design

Russell De Rozario

Costume design

Sammy Sheldon

Makeup / hair

Fae Hammond

VFX supervisor

Mattias Lindahl

Sound

Michael Maroussas

Stunt coordinator

Bradley James Allan

Runtime

118 min · 1h 58m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$28,000,000

Box office

$96,188,903

Return

344% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Kick-Ass (2010) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

78% 🍅 Fresh

Metacritic

66/100

IMDB rating

7.6/10 · 620,211 votes

MPAA

R

Part of

Kick-Ass Collection

The "Kick-Ass" film series is a British-American action-comedy about unconventional superheroes, based on the Marvel comic by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. Known for its unique blend of humor and violence, the series has gained acclaim from both critics and audiences. It consists of two movies: "Kick-Ass" (2010), directed by Matthew Vaughn, and "Kick-Ass 2" (2013), directed by Jeff Wadlow.

• 
  Kick-Ass

  2010 · this one
• 
  Kick-Ass 2

  2013

Also by

Matthew Vaughn

• 
  Kingsman: The Secret Service

  2015 · ★ 7.6
• 
  X-Men: First Class

  2011 · ★ 7.3
• 
  Stardust

  2007 · ★ 7.3
• 
  Kingsman: The Golden Circle

  2017 · ★ 6.9
• 
  Layer Cake

  2004 · ★ 6.9
• 
  The King's Man

  2021 · ★ 6.7

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

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Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  15th Anniversary Unmasked Edition 4K SteelBook® Official Trailer

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  Kick-Ass - Trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• ohlalipop2017-02-09

  I thought this movie was a super comedy movie but I was wrong. I didn't know it was a pretty serious movie with real killings and stuff. It was like Kill Bill minus the really gross things. It was not a silly movie after all. The character Kick-Ass was pretty stupid. I mean a high school nobody trying to be somebody. Of all the things he could think of, it's being a super hero. And then there's Big Daddy and Hit Girl who had the real stunts. Their characters were pretty funny. I mean I can't think of any words to describe Nicolas Cage's character. A good daddy who doesn't know how to bring up a girl. And then there's Chloe Moretz. Wow. She did all the action in the movie. I mean this girl is only 13 years old. I'm a fan. And then there's Red Mist who I think is very silly like Kick Ass as well. My rate for this movie is A.

  Read full review ↓
• Dung Nguyen2023-07-17
  ★ 10/10

  My favourite movie!

  Read full review ↓
• CinemaSerf2023-09-05
  ★ 6/10

  Geeky "Dave" (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his two pals go through life at high school being bullied and reading comic books. Finally fed up being put upon, he buys a superhero suit online and heads out into the night hoping that his green lycra will deter the city's nasties. After his umpteenth beating he is rescued by a like-minded father and daughter team who take him under their own wing and set about training him. Meantime, the kingpin of crime "D'Amico" (Mark Strong) is running the town with a ruthless rod of iron, watched adoringly by his hapless son "Chris" (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Surprisingly, the former trio start to have some success against this arch-baddie so battle lines are soon drawn and, well you can guess the rest. Up to a point, this works. ATJ (especially with glasses and curly hair) is very easy on the eye and there is a degree of chemistry between his character and his cohort "Mindy" (Chloë Grace Moretz) all under the tutelage of a rather underplayed Nicolas Cage as her dad "Damon". Sadly, the initially quirky start that sees real people aspiring to make their community better - without the ability to fly or laser things with their eyes - peters out quite quickly and the jokes that are quite attitudinally sharp at the start just become a little more puerile and expletive-dependent. Mr. Strong isn't really much of a baddie and the combat scenes are well and truly prolonged to the point where they end up a bit repetitive and dull. It has it's moments, this movie - it's generally quite entertaining but at all but two hours in length it just runs out of ideas around the half way mark and only just struggles over the line.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Plan B Entertainment

  US

• 

  Marv

  GB

Key crew

• Makeup DesignerFae Hammond
• ProducerDavid Reid
• GripDarren Holland
• Makeup & HairKaren Sherriff-Brown
• Art DirectionSarah Bicknell
• HairstylistIlona Herman
• Hair DesignerFae Hammond
• Makeup ArtistIlona Herman
• Property MasterAllen J. Polley
• Visual Effects ProducerAndy Taylor
• Visual Effects SupervisorMattias Lindahl
• Second Unit DirectorTim Maurice-Jones
• Supervising Art DirectorJohn King
• Rigging GafferAndrew Watson
• Key GripKevin Fraser
• GafferDavid Smith
• ADR MixerMark Appleby
• ADR MixerRon Bedrosian
• ProducerTarquin Pack
• Set DecorationTina Jones
• Foley ArtistPeter Burgis
• Foley EditorArthur Graley
• Sound DesignerMichael Maroussas
• ADR Voice CastingAbigail Barbier

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• hero
• secret identity
• crime fighter
• superhero
• dark comedy
• comic book
• based on comic
• murder
• mafia
• family
• realism
• mist
• adventurer
• rookie
• young heroes
• aggressive
• young adult
• intense
• powerful

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2010-03-12R· South by Southwest Film Festival
• Theatrical2010-04-16R

Also known as

International titles

• Kick-Ass - Un superhéroe sin super poderesAR
• Kick AssUS
• เกรียนโคตรมหาประลัย 1TH
• اردنگیIR
• گوشمالیIR
• キック・アス：2010JP
• 勁揪俠HK
• 勁揪俠TW