Kick-Ass’ soundtrack contributes substantially to the tongue-in-cheek humor and applause-provoking action that has been making the blockbuster movie such a hit.
The film’s lead teen takes his first superhero steps to the beat of “Stand Up” by The Prodigy. This British band’s punk rock style dominates the soundtrack, with their more anxious “Omen” blaring later in the movie. While The Prodigy offers heart-palpitating beats, their Californian contemporaries The Dickies provides the Kick-Ass humor.
Their cover of “Banana Splits” backs up Hit Girls’ first badass fight sequence. Originally written as the theme song for a children’s television program, it’s use emphasizes the grotesqueness of our watching — and, more to the point, enjoying watching — an eleven-year-old killer.
Despite this perversion of childhood, Kick-Ass and its soundtrack retains much of its classic comic book feel. The soundtrack craftily uses world music rhythmic beats to offset the punk rock tunes. Cuba meets synthesizers in “Bongo Song,” miming the moves of a fight. Kick-Ass gets a spaghetti western twang thanks to famed composer Ennio Morricone’s showdown “Per Qualche Dollaro In Piu (For a Few Dollars More).”
With this song, the film uses music to draw on westerns’ and comic books’ occasional — or not so occasional — cheesiness. The title track commissioned from Mika is far from the best on the album, but it helps to poke fun at the ridiculousness of looking heroic in a spandex suit, as does “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us” by Sparks. These songs, though corny, are thankfully lacking the teen-angst ridden lyrics that plague The Pretty Reckless’ “Make Me Wanna Die.” Other than the inclusion of yet another cover of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation,” it’s the only disappointing track on the album.
Kick Ass’ soundtrack, like its special effects, lighting, costumes, and script, contributes to the movie’s main source of success: its at once humorous and perversely entertaining graphic violence.
Track List
2.Kick Ass (We Are Young) — Mika vs. RedOne
3.Can’t Go Back — Primal Scream
4.There’s a Pot Brewin’ — The Little Ones
6.Make Me Wanna Die — The Pretty Reckless
7.Banana Splits — The Dickies
8.Starry Eyed — Ellie Goulding
9.This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us — Sparks
10.We’re All In Love — The New York Dolls
12.Per Qualche Dollaro In Piu (For a Few Dollars More) — Ennio Morricone
13.Bad Reputation — The Hit Girls
14.An American Trilogy — Elvis Presley
