Back when Jim Carrey was giving the finger to gun lovers in a Funny or Die video, Herman Cain attacked the actor for criticizing "law-abiding gun owners while promoting his ultra-violent, gun-packed movie," the soon-to-be released Kick-Ass 2.
Apparently, Mr. Carrey agrees. He tweeted this on Sunday:
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In the movie, Carrey plays Colonel Stars and Stripes (watch the trailer below), who, like all of the movie's protagonists, is a regular-person-turned-superhero. If it's anything like the original Kick-Ass, released in 2010, it will be filled with brutal, non-stop violence, which has some of Carrey's detractors calling him a hypocrite:
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Sonny Bunch of the Free Beacon noted that Carrey started filming Kick-Ass 2 after the Aurora, Colo., and Tucson shootings, which makes his citing of Sandy Hook seem suspect.
"Let's just put this out there: Jim Carrey is a hypocrite for signing on to, and cashing the check for appearing in, a film that he now decries as too violent," Bunch wrote. "And he is a coward for refusing to do press for the picture."
Mike Millar, the movie's executive producer and creator of the comic book it was based on, responded to Carrey's change of heart on his blog:
As you may know, Jim is a passionate advocate of gun-control and I respect both his politics and his opinion, but I'm baffled by this sudden announcement as nothing seen in this picture wasn't in the screenplay eighteen 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.
Like Jim, I'm horrified by real-life violence (even though I'm Scottish), but Kick-Ass 2 isn't a documentary... Ultimately, this is his decision, but I've never quite bought the notion that violence in fiction leads to violence in real-life any more than Harry Potter casting a spell creates more Boy Wizards in real-life. [Millar World]
Kick-Ass 2, which has been rated R for "strong violence, pervasive language, crude and sexual content, and brief nudity," hits theaters on Aug. 16.
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Keith Wagstaff is a staff writer at TheWeek.com covering politics and current events. He has previously written for such publications as TIME, Details, VICE, and the Village Voice.
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