Sticks and stones will break your bones. Along with knifes, guns and a bazooka.

Kick-Ass
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Mark Strong, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moritz
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary: Comic book nerd Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) wonders why, in this world of crime and Z list role models, no one has donned lycra and become a superhero - it's time for Kick Ass!

This isn't your everyday comic bo0k adaptation, a property like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for example, which has been purchased by a Hollywood film studio and diluted into lowest common denominator, sequel generation, fast food tie in fodder. Kick-Ass has been lovingly brought to the screen with fans of superheroes in mind. It doesn't patronise or ask for anything else but your attention and companionship on a two hour ride into what makes the naivety of youth exhilarating, beautiful and a little bit scary.

Each of these lovingly constructed kicks, slices, dices and cutting remarks have been brought to the screen by original comic book creator Mark Millar and the reunited team of Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn. Vaughn's assured direction successfully marrying the violent gangsterisms of his first film Layer Cake with the heartfelt whimsical fantasy of his financially unsuccessful Stardust, and Goldman's adaptation subverting the occasionally nauseating saccharine sweetness of Peter Parker's, aka Spiderman, adolescent wrist fuelled fluid emissions.

Kick-Ass has so many fantastic moments, characters and set pieces that attempting to critique all of them would be a disservice, probably as my limited vocabulary would not give them the credence they deserve, but needless to say Nic Cage channelling Adam West's Batman in all his stunted delivery and inappropriate breathing glory is perfect and Chloe Moritz's C-bomb dropping, knife welding Hit-Girl is a Leon inspired revelation. But despite the rich vein of stylish fantasy violence that runs through the film (and in these two characters in particular), at its heart, Kick-Ass deals with issues of loss and abandonment and it's at these moments of black comedy and pathos that it acquires the cape to fly above and beyond the usual super hero dross that fills your local mulitplex at this time of year.

Occasionally you stumble across a film that ticks every single box in your cinema going repertoire, a film where it's almost impossible to be objective because the goose bumps on your skin are affecting your critical senses every five minutes. Kick-Ass is that film and it will stimulate your mind and overload your body like a 5 course meal with an energy drink soup starter and an enema dessert.