The toughest role

It might not have been fortuitous to have watched Defendor and then gone to see Kick Ass the next day.
On a few very important levels, they are the same movie. Ersatz superheros, corrupt police in cahoots with powerful bad guys with goons aplenty, tension+violence= comic relief, it's somewhat formulaic, but it's really all about the execution. I liked Kick Ass better even though I'm finding that Woody Harrelson can do no wrong.
Hit Girl has been maligned by Roger Ebert which concerns me because he rarely misses the point but does so with this movie. This is as close to a story about real people that fiction can get. Kids are brutalized everyday, all day, everywhere. They rarely if ever have any recourse, except of course for a cathartic 100 minutes every so often. And Nic Cage, reminding us that he can act, rules as the dad who initiates and supports it all, knowing that fighting fair, ignoring the bullies and telling an adult just doesn't hold a candle to kicking ass.