Movie Musing: Jim Carrey Doesn't Support Kick-Ass 2

Jim Carrey Not Fine With Violence in Kick-Ass 2

Despite acting in Kick-Ass 2 as Colonel Stars and Stripes, Jim Carrey has recently condemned the level of violence present in Kick-Ass 2. This is after the recent Sandy Hook massacre in December, which has changed the actor’s attitude towards the movie.

This is what appeared on his Twitter feed:

“I did Kick-Ass a month before Sandy Hook, and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence. “My apologies to others involve[d] with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart.”

He has chosen to distance himself from the film’s promotional campaign. This is surprising as Kick-Ass is inherently violent and he should have known what he was getting into in the first place. Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar had this to say,

“[I'm] baffled by this sudden announcement as nothing seen in this picture wasn’t in the screenplay 18 months ago. Yes, the body-count is very high, but a movie called Kick-Ass 2 really has to do what it says on the tin. A sequel to the picture that gave us Hit-Girl was always going to have some blood on the floor and this should have been no shock to a guy who enjoyed the first movie so much... This is fiction and like Tarantino and Peckinpah, Scorsese and Eastwood, John Boorman, Oliver Stone and Park Chan-wook, Kick-Ass avoids the usual bloodless body count of most big summer pictures and focuses instead of the consequences of violence... Our job as storytellers is to entertain and our toolbox can’t be sabotaged by curtailing the use of guns in an action-movie.”

Millar goes further to defend the movie, “imagine a John Wayne picture where he wasn’t packing, or a Rocky movie where Stallone wasn’t punching someone repeatedly in the face. Like Jim, I'm horrified by real-life violence (even though I'm Scottish), but Kick-Ass 2 isn't a documentary. No actors were harmed in the making of this production!”

I would have to agree with Millar on this point. Besides, Carrey’s attempts to distance himself from the movie’s promotional trail have created enough buzz already, so his stance is ideal for Universal Pictures. You can expect better than expected sales at the box office.

If you need reminding of Kick-Ass’ explicit material, let me give you a small list.

1. Young girl who swears (Hit-Girl)

2. Kick-Ass 2’s villain is named The Mother F*****.

3. The Villain’s gang is called Toxic Mega C**ts.

4. In the comics, the villain reintroduces himself by mowing down a group of 8-year olds. This bit has been sensibly cut from the movie.

5. Violence, violence, violence.