Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2014

Despite the violence, 2010’s edgy Kick Ass was sporadically amusing. It made fun of superhero tropes, and Chloe Grace Moretz’s 12-year-old “Hit Girl” character was delightfully shocking for that potty mouth on her. But this tonally schizophrenic, vulgar sequel goes all Dark Knight on us. It’s mean-spirited and meandering, and looks a lot like what the first one was satirizing. There’s a lot of killing. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is off-putting as the super-villain, and now Moretz, though still the best thing in the picture, is just another cussing teenager. A very unpleasant movie. Please, NOT for kids. (103 min)