This 'Kick Ass' DVD set comes in a cool black metal case, that's tricky to open and probably wouldn't like being trodden on, but it's cool none the less. Inside there's plastic inserts holding three DVDs. One is Blu-ray, and the other two are standard res DVDs: the film and 'disk 2' [the extras]. The 2 hours of bonus features include 'The making of kick-ass: A new kind of Superhero [114 mins]', The artwork of Kick-ass [storyboard and designs], the Director's commentary, and 'The comic origins of Kick-ass' featurette. The extras are on both the Blu-ray and split across the two standard DVDs, with the Blu-ray and disk 2 DVD giving ~2h of extras, while the standard film DVD has another 20 minutes of them [plus the movie of course]. The Blu-ray disk is 1080 hi-def 2.4:1 widescreen, English DTS-HD 5.1 audio, with English subtitles and English Audio description track 2 only. The DVD is English 5.1 audio with English SDH subtitles. No other languages supported. I can't find any region code info other than -/R0 written on all the disks. The movie run time is 1h 58mins on Blu-ray, and rated 15. As you would expect the Blu-ray looks great on my teenage sons hi-def+PS3 system, and we are happy with the standard DVDs universal play on our other systems. There doesn't seem to be an 'iPod' friendly compressed digital version of the film though [which could lose a star for some].
And to the movie itself, well it's kind of a vulgar, violent and puerile version of 'Watchmen' [OK that film was even more violent and puerile], but Kick-ass is great fun none the less and has surprisingly sensitive moments amongst the carnage. It's pretty much an anti-superhero mickey-take movie, based around a likeable teenage lad who decides to become a super-hero, despite having no super-powers or any training - the result is predictable and the costumes chosen are almost as lame as the crime-fighter names. Naturally the movie is saved by the coarse humour [a sort of live action, intense 'Incredibles']. With Nicolas Cage as 'Big Daddy' the movie could have been called 'Adam West rides again' - as a kid the camp 1960's 'Batman' was a fave of mine. Doesn't matter which came first either, the Kick-ass comic or the movie. So while you are waiting for 'Scott Pilgrim vs the world' to come out on DVD/Blu-ray, why not try this movie set. Being 14 at the time, my son was annoyed he couldn't see the film at the cinema, but now, just in time for his 15th birthday, it's arrived - and he rates the movie and DVD set 5*, plus we paid about the same for this three DVD steelbox combo set as the single Blu-ray release, so it was also 5* for value as well ...
Typical Kick-ass quote: "I'll be honest, there wasn't a whole lot of crime-fighting at first. But even so, it kept me pretty busy. I called it preparation, but if you called it fantasizing, it would've been hard to argue. All I knew was, I never felt so good about myself".