Kick-Ass

(MA) Universal DVD/BD

The title should make it abundantly clear but, if you need any other assistance with working out whether you want to watch this garish, violent and black-humoured cocktail, here you go: an 11-year-old girl, raised as an assassin by her vengeful nutcase of a doting father, wipes out a posse of thugs in a bloody, foul-mouthed and brutal slow-mo attack.

Based on a brash comic book which parodies and celebrates superheroes, Kick-Ass is chockers with the kind of controversial content smugly created so that the viewers who get off on it can sneer at those who don’t.

Lethal hit-girl (Chloe Moretz) is an amazing pot-stirrer, inspiring everything from censorship debates to the re-evaluation of social values and child protection attitudes. A sign of the times is how anyone daring to bemoan or object to Kick-Ass’s extremes will most likely be labelled a “boring wowser” as opposed to a person with their own views, beliefs and standards.

Amid all these divisive ingredients, Kick-Ass is a clever spin on the Spider-Man story, as everyday teen Dave (Aaron Johnson) decides to become a DIY superhero — because he can’t believe no one else has done it. Without any special powers or talents, Dave enters the crime-fighting world and Kick-Ass rockets through as a spiky satire of — and love letter to — the violent insanity of caped crusaders.

Not that you will care if its taboo-smashing excesses rub you the wrong way.

Ben McEachen