"All right, you corn-nuts, let's see what you got"...

So by now a lot of people have indicated their displeasure with the film Kick-Ass, based on the comic of the same name.

There are times in America, most notably "Nipplegate" from the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in 2004, where I facepalm over the apparent ignorance of the American viewing public. We can watch a four-hour extravaganza of men slamming against other men over who has possession of a ball of cowhide, interspersed with a number of flowerly commercials about erectile dysfunction, but suddenly a 2 second shot of a female breast is what signals the death-knell of America as we know it. Americans can see dozens of simulated murders, rapes and assaults on prime-time television every week, but show a few seconds of a buttock--male or female--and that's a travesty of entertainment.

But back to the film, for which I don't understand all the bashing. The language was no worse than what I've heard junior-high kids speaking (and this from 1982, mind you), and it's all over any Myspace or Facebook page you see written by teenagers. Also, for the unenlightened idiots out there--the writer of the comic is Scottish. In the U.K., the C-word is no more heinous than calling someone an asshole in the U.S.. It's used prolifically by men and women of all ages over there, even more during football games.

However, since it was scripted to come out of the mouth of a 10-year-old female vigilante assassin, it's somehow the worst thing in the universe, ever and we are all weaker as a species because of it. The violence of the film still pales in comparison to the slasher porn from Saw and related flicks that any teenager sees on a given weekend (or whichever tween manages to sneak it in past an ignorant parent during a trip to Blockbuster). Adults and reviewers often have misplaced priorities when considering the ultimate theme of the film, and in this case their response was true to form.