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Roger Ebert Calls Kick Ass "Morally Reprehensible", Gives It One Star

Published Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:00:11 -0500

Got to say I never thought Roger Ebert and the Daily Mail would be on the same page about anything.

Famed longstanding American film reviewer Roger Ebert just gave his review of Kick Ass, in which he launches a strong attack on the movie adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr's comic book. And makes it sound more like a CAPAlert review.

A movie camera makes a record of whatever is placed in front of it, and in this case, it shows deadly carnage dished out by an 11-year-old girl, after which an adult man brutally hammers her to within an inch of her life. Blood everywhere. Now tell me all about the context.

He asks "I know, I know. This is a satire. But a satire of what?" before reminding readers that;

This movie regards human beings like video-game targets. Kill one, and you score. They're dead, you win. When kids in the age range of this movie's home video audience are shooting one another every day in America, that kind of stops being funny.

Weirdly, I think Ebert has answered his own question. It is a satire of the very events and society he describes.

Whether such topics should be satirised is another question. But I tend to take the opinion that its the most serious of topics that need to be satirised with the most urgency.

And naturally much of this will go over the heads of the audience, just as it did with Robocop, Starship Troopers (movie) or The Authority. But it doesn't mean it shouldn't be attempted.

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