Is 'Kick-Ass' the most 'irresponsible' film ever made?

This superhero movie features an 11-year-old girl butchering bad guys and dropping "the C bomb." Is that wrong?

A foul-mouthed, crime-fighting cinematic superhero doesn't sound like anything new. But when it's an 11-year-old girl who slaughters people and uses "the c word" with reckless abandon, commentators sit up and take notice. Kick-Ass, released on Friday, is about a tween — played by 13-year-old actress Chloe Moretz — who decides to take on the larger-than-life identity of Hit-Girl and fight back against bullies and criminals. The Daily Mail calls it "one of the most deeply cynical, shamelessly irresponsible films ever." Does the reviewer have a case? (Watch the Kick-Ass trailer)

It's a child actor in an adult movie. What's the big deal? Hit-Girl's use of "the final unutterable profanity" has turned Moretz into "something of the star of the moment," says Jay Stone in the National Post. But only "mild protests" have ensued. We've come a long way since Hollywood considered child actors "more manufactured ideas than people." Hit-Girl is as far away from that "patronizing cutesy-poo" as you can get, and we're better off for it.

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