I enjoyed watching this and think it would be cool if you did this kind of thing in the future. I imagine it's an incredible amount of work, but it would be cool to see more of these, even if it's only on occasion.

I found Kick-Ass to be a very personal, realistic experience. When I was a kid, if it wasn't testament enough that I was going to become a HUGE nerd in my older days, I dreamed of growing up to be a superhero.

My enjoyment of this movie rode almost entirely on David/Kick-Ass as a character. His going through the motions (up until the point where the torture scene ends) pretty much sums up what would have happened if I balls'd up and grabbed a goofy suit and acted on my grandoise fantasies of vigilantism. I would have gotten the shit kicked out of me quite a few times, MAYBE get lucky once (seriously, Kick-Ass wins ONE fight before the ending fight scene, and it's only because the cops show up) and find myself overshadowed by people more capable than me.

Kick-Ass might be the closest character to my heart of any fictional creation ever. On an added note, in the comic, things are FAR shittier for our hero. Pretty much everything that goes wrong does for him.

On that point alone, I would have enjoyed the movie, but I found the fights extremely entertaining and the comedy uproarious. And, strangely enough, Big Daddy's death in the movie genuinely hit home. At the risk of sounding like a huge wuss, I was seconds away from bursting into tears.

So yeah, to sum it up, the character of David/Kick-Ass holds what would really be your standard superhero movie on its shoulders and holds it well above the competition.

Oh, and the acting is spectacular.

I agree with alot of the emails and respect your oppinion on kick ass man and you really are a good critic. But I really don't think you would have liked the Comic Daddy all that much. In the comic I never really got a good hold on weather I liked him or not though. I know this goes against your point that characters don't need to be likeable to be 3D, But in the comic he dosn't just say it was all a lie. But Hitgirl never finds out that it was a lie she goes through the rest of it thinking the ruse that her father told her was legitimately what happend. And also he dosn't just take his daughter away, he kidnapps her as a baby from his wife and takes her to fight with him. I just can't like someone like that. It's not like Taxi Driver or the Professional where they can still be interesting in their own respects. The comic daddy really had very little character development in the book and thus was kinda uninteresting. I liked the relationship with his daughter in the movie, the way they made him crazy and selfish but also really caring about the health of his daughter. Yes, why he trained her to be a superhero makes no sense but I still liked him regardless of that. I do really like your points in this and really look forward to more episodes I just thought I should critic the idea of the Comic Book Big Daddy being in this movie.

Also if I can go on a tangent: Iron man 2 man we need the two halves of your mind on that movie.

I DO agree with you that The comic book Big Daddy Should have Been the Movie Big Daddy. I think that it would have made the Movie so much more enjoyable and funny. Although i did like the violence in the movie Because i think That without the violance and the some of the characters in it like hitgirl with by the way i found her to be so frecken alsome and just well kick ass the movie would have been bland and just well flat out boring so i am glad that there was something in it that was just cool. And another point that you made about that wife that killed her self i also think that you would have to be pretty messed up in the head to do something like It just showed that the wife in the Movie was not a strong character what so ever and very week, maby the weekest one in the movie in fact because come on to kill your self you have to be messed up and just so out of it. Great review as always though i enjoyed it very much, Can't wait till the next one

I truly enjoyed this video. One of my hobbies is breaking down a film and analyzing the good, bad and just plain indeterminable aspects of a film. And you, Luke, are a critic I aspire to be like.

A very good review. Thanks.
I like your videos so far quite a lot and i'm curious to see whether you can keep up the split personality concept for your reviews, because i think that won't be easy over a bigger number of reviews.


As somebody who has some experience with martial arts, i am very skeptical about those so called self defense courses. I think most - if not all - of those are just a way for martial arts teachers to make some more money and get people into their dojos who normally wouldn't set a foot in there.
I know some of those guys who desperately try to make a living of something that started of as a hobby and most of them even admit that what they teach women in their self defense courses is mostly useless bullshit, not in front of their customers, of course.

It takes decades of hard training till you can hope to ever do anything more than flinch instinctively in a hand to hand combat situation. Did you ever see a Olympic Karate or Tae Kwon Do fight? Those people are black belts who do that since their early childhood and still it boils down to something that looks like hardly more than the wild and confused flailing of arms and legs of two kids in a school yard brawl.
To do a 2 week crash course and think what you learned there will help you against a determined attacker is just ludicrous and this kind of false self confidence can just as well cause more damage than it helps.

The worst are those Krav Maga guys who teach people to grab for guns and knives.

[b]Again, this was a fun movie experience....I really think that the only people who were shocked while watching this, were the people who never read the comics...[/b]

I don't agree with your argument that the comic book version of Big Daddy should have been the movie version, but you make a interesting argument. What I think would be interesting is if in the sequel (If they make one) that the comic version of big daddy was revealed to be what really happened. I think that if they tried to shoehorn that into the 1st movie, it would just further add to, as you put it, the big mac being squeezed through a key-hole.

Also, I would still buy the revenge cause he was in jail story. From Big Daddy's perspective, he was sent to jail, which then led him to not being with his wife, which then led to him not being there to stop her from killing herself. To me, Big Daddy could be blaming himself for not being there, but we all know we can't blame ourselves, so he blames the person that kept him from being there. Just difference in opinion I guess.

Wow... this was a lot to swallow in just one movie. Seriously though, the points you came up with were definatly sound and reasonable and I enjoyed listening to them. Hell, I even agreed with most of them, especially the bit about the unsure feeling right after the movie and the more positive feelings coming afterwards. About a week after seeing this movie I came to accept it for what it was and in general I can say I enjoyed it. EXCEPT for one major problem I have not with the movie but with the original creator Mark Millar.

This man needs to go fuck himself. After examining his back catalogue of work I realized that most of his writings consist of satire comics and 'what if' stories. There is certainly nothing wrong with these sorts of stories in general or most of Millar's previous work it's just that his recent work (Kick Ass most prominantly) make it seem like he doesn't take the industry or the audience seriously. Think about the beginning of the movie and the main characters in general. The beginning basically flat out says 'of course this man can't fly that would be retarded and anyone who had such an idea or read a book fictionally depicting such a thing would be retarded.'

Now think about Kick Ass, Big Daddy and Red Mist. All of their inspirations of fighting crime don't come from any good intention. Just simply 'I'm an idiot comic book fan and I'm going to dress up and be just like my heroes.' Now sure this idea is okay for an origin and you would expect them to fail initially, but then you would want to see these characters have a sort of triumph. Instead Millar decides to say 'Fuck you, that would never happen in real life' and Red Mist stabbs Kick Ass in the back, Big Daddy DIES, and Kick Ass gets the shit kicked out of him. And even when he does win, in the end does that inspire him to try and do more good? Nope. He just shrugs off the entire ordeal and decides that it was a bad idea. What gives? That totally throws away the previous pretense that anyone can be a superhero in their own unique way and replaces it with 'if you don't try you can't fail.' As if the entire thing was merely a comic book 'phase' for Kick Ass and not really a learning experience. The only real person who succeeds in the movie is hitgirl which is an insult in it's own right. I have no problem with Hitgirl doing all of these violent things (a la Roger Ebert) but it just seems like another device criticizing people who like comics by saying that this is the most likablr character in comicbooks. The totally insane, totally absurd character who goes around murdering dozens of people without remorse.

Millar's oversimplificaction of a comic fan in that sense is just plain not true. Not all people that read comics is like that and not all comics are ultraviolent slaughterfests. It's like Millar is a hipster and he made this comic/movie just to be insultingly ironic.

Well that too was a lot and like I s...

Whether or not the mob boss actually killed Big Daddy's wife (in the movie) is irrelevant. You can believe something, and believe it with every fiber of your being, without it being true.

I think you are missing the point completely on the subject of BD's wife's suicide in the movie.

My interpretation of the facts would be as follows (and I know it might very well be an over-rationalization):

He is framed by the mobsters and goes to jail. The his wife commits suicide and he, obviously blames the mobsters,but not for being responsible of killing her, because they are not. Actually, he is pissed off at them because, due to the fact that he had been jailed, he could not have been with his wife and maybe prevented her from killing herself. This brings us to the issue that she must have had some serious, SERIOUS mental issues, but that's something that is not adressed at all, so, yes: speculation, speculation, speculation. I know.

Anyway, maybe no one has seen this from this point of view. He feels guilty for not having been there for his wife and he blames the mobsters for it.

This is pretty much exactly what I was about to post.

The character may or may not have known something was wrong with his wife, but either way being framed and taken to jail will place the blame on someone other than Big Daddy. Not being able to be there in the time of her need can really mess with a man's head.

If he hadn't been framed, the wife may still have killed herself. But in that case Big Daddy would have blamed himself.

hmmm, intresting thoughts, especaily on big daddy. honestly i was shocked that you say you liked the comic version. now ill just say i loved this film i pretty much have the complete opposite view on this film then you do. i didnt read the comic before the film but i did get a chance to read it after i saw it and thought that the relationship between big daddy and hit-girl was way better in the film, because even though he was still a selfish asshole, yes i agree with you on that, he was a more likable selfish asshole, if that makes sense, in the film then the comic. in fact he really pissed me off in the comic because of the fact that he was just bored with his life and wanted to fight crime, i mean yeah its a complex story but what kind of bullshit is that! he takes away his daughters childhood because hes bored and wants to be a super hero? that goes beyond the word asshole, i don't know if there's a word crul enough to call someone who does that. now on to the film version, while he basically does the same thing he does it because he truly believes that, because of this mobster, his wife killed herself and he wants revenge, but at the same time thinks hit-girl should have revenge because she never knew her mother. yes she is put into dangerous situations but she's been trained very well and he cares for her a lot. this point was shown in the fight scene where hit-girl was introduced. when big daddy had his eye on the situation the whole time from a sniper. i think big daddy really is the thing that makes people love this movie or hate it. i liked the film way better than the comic mainly because of the character change of big daddy, it also helped that nick cage had the best perfomance of his career in the past 6 years.

Oh please elaborate on that for me. What racism are you talking about?

Because they didn't have their token black superhero?

i think the wife killed herself because(from what i may remember from the movie) she was in major debt which she wouldn't be able to pay(without big daddy working) and with a baby almost there she would be in even more debt and possibly a poor future for the baby so she decided to prevent any chance of any of that from happening

Great response to everything. I like watching you as you act like a real sensitive, thinking person, while everyone else on this site puts on the image of an arrogant egotistical jackass.

It might be interesting to occasionally do this sort of audience introspective again. It would break the wall between us and the critics who mostly exist to put on a show.

A very interesting style of reviewing and you have a good method of balancing the validity of a comment with your own opinion. I'd definitely be all for a series of this. I don't have much of an opinion of the movie myself. I went to see it because the actress playing Hit Girl was trained in Wushu, and I'm attempting to learn it myself. It's inspiring, like watching a kung fu movie.

thnx a ton for doing the review. i read got swept up in the hype of the comic early on but didn't follow through to the end. i was disappointed with Mark Millar's writing by the midway point of the story. so to see ridiculous situations play out in the movie was not earth shattering. it seemed that Millar made a mistake in mashing 2 stories together and it wasn't rectified by the movie. but the movie takes the cake for upsets, when it turns a disturbing acceptable Big Daddy into Batman. according to your review the movie ruins the character even more with his illogical story arc. i come away disliking both. i guess it's time for me to read Wanted and return to the movie adaptation.

good one Luke...oh and kudos on the seriously scary background sound effects. i'm viewing this at 2am and nearly crapped my pants when i heard what sounded like MY printer turning on behind me (at around 15:56mins in). :dry:

Just to nitpick; when you said no women would try to kill themselves when they were pregnant, I must disagree. Nearly every woman who becomes pregnant becomes seriously depressed for weeks on end, even with no good justification. And even if they never became depressed before in their whole lives. If your husband lost his job and was put in prison on top of that, who wouldn't be depressed?

He's still a selfish asshole. Why? Because not EVERYTHING is taken from him. He still has his daughter. The same daughter he is willing to sacrifice by turning her into a psychopathic killer. That is beyond selfish - that's just plain sick.

First - I just wanna say how I enjoyed your rebuttle even though I will still argue with you over some things.
Second - SUNUVABITCH! You didn't read mine!

Thank you

Didn't she suicide because she didn't have anything to support her and her future child? The husband goes to jail, thus she doesn't have anyone to lean on for help, which leads to her suicide.

Very interesting analysis

That was very interesting ! Nice analyse of the movie !

Wat you said in your follow up episode was really interesting, especially the big daddy part, it actully makes me want to do my own coparison between the comic version and the movies version.
Oh and I also thought the film was okay, it wasn't something to go bannanas about but it wasn't bad either. The action was great the story has it's ups and down and the characters are likeable.

The thing is, training his daughter in the movie makes perfect sense, (and based on his character sense in the comic as well I suppose, but he's just one giant douche there.)

BD isn't JUST out for revenge for his wife's death of course, he's ALSO out for revenge for being in jail for 5 years and missing his daughter being born and growing her first 5 years. THAT's revenge reasons right there, BUT this guy is also a COP who believes in JUSTICE. Remember, the reason he was framed, was because he refused to be bribed. BD wants to see justice done, and stop a criminal that is destroying a city and the people in it.

And guess what, he can't do it as a cop, he tried that, he got framed, sent to jail and can't be a cop again. A chunk of the cops and judges are also bought off; so the only way to stop this mob boss, is to go after him yourself. Eliminating him is the only option; even if you did get evidence and delivered him to the cops, a combo of lawyers and bought judges would mean he's back out on the streets in no time.

And here's the point: LOVED ONES OF SUPER HEROES BECOME TARGETS/HOSTAGES/ LEVERAGE!

How to circumvent this? Make sure your loved one(s) are every bit as much the unstoppable, killing machine, super hero as you are. He trained her, to PROTECT her.

In fact, you could say, that the moment he decided the mob boss had to go down; the only responsible thing to do, was train his daughter. Not training her, would be the irresponsible thing to do.

The only question remaining, was how responsible it was to actually bring her along, as opposed to just preparing her to defend herself from the inevitable mob raid to get her to get to him.

I hope this becomes one of your regular series of videos on the site, because it is quite interesting. It's a bit more in depth than the regular reviews because you talk about why you believe the way you do when people have already seen the overview. I think this video is a very good idea. Can't wait for your next video. :)

Damnit; now I feel like an asshole for defending the movie with the cop-out arguement of, "it's only fiction."

Touchè, good sir and community. Touchè.

Well, I still think you're not taking the [i]Big Daddy is crazy[/i] thing far enough (specifically, if he's already nuts he doesn't [i]need[/i] a particularly strong tie between his wife's death and the mobster who framed him to shift the blame that way), but did like the way you broke both versions of the character down into "selfish asshole." It's true, they both are. I think the movie version isn't quite as much of one (or at least, [i]he[/i] doesn't think he is), but, yeah, it is kind of their defining character trait.

Also, I can see why they changed Big Daddy for the movie: The likable thing, yeah, but I think the producers felt they were already handling too much movie without introducing the plot twist that would require, and the movie was already long enough without having to write in Hit Girl's reaction to finding that out. Of course, I would have just cut out the successful Dave/Katie romance (she actually does kick him out and never talks to him again in the comic) to make room, but that's just me.

I also never really thought about why the comics Big Daddy was better. Now that I think about it... You're right. He's a bit of a contrast in the film (the revenge (at least in his own mind)-based superhero versus the justice-based superhero), but the contrast in the comics is a better one, the difference between the hobbyist and the one who becomes obsessed with his hobby. It's not Kick Ass with a different origin story, but Kick Ass if he lets himself go too far, and it makes his heel-turn at the end more frightening, as possibly the first step towards becoming another Big Daddy, even if he has the intent [i]at that time[/i] of giving up superheroing as soon as he's done.

As much as I like Film Conscience, I actually think I might like Points of Review more. I hope to see more in the future!

You still miss the entire point: he's still a selfish bastard. Just because life's circumstances push him to act on his selfishness doesn't make him any less of a selfish prick, just as murdering someone because you had a bad day doesn't make you any less of a murderer.

And if you went crazy like that, you'd be a selfish jerk, too.