Kick-Ass 2

As is so often the case, the sequel can’t recapture the zip and freshness of the original. It follows the usual path of trying to one-up by putting in more of what the producers wrongly feel is what made the first movie work: ordinary people acting out as superheroes. So we get dozens of them, and not a one of them is interesting. (One of them is Jim Carrey and we didn’t even recognize him. I can’t imagine what led him to take this part. He is perfectly ordinary, not a hint of the usual Carrey wonderful insanity.) Not satisfied with that, we get fifty or so villains led by the son of the dead drug kingpin in the first one. It all ends with a terribly boring free-for-all slaughter in a huge warehouse. Gee, where did they get that idea, huh?

As sort of a sub-plot we see Mindy “Hit-Girl” Macready venturing into a place much more terrifying than the mean streets of New York City: High school! It could have been funny, but it’s totally wasted. What this movie needed was more Hit-Girl and less everything else. I’m astonished that no one could see that.