11 'Kick-Ass' Tidbits You Didn't Know

The sequel is never better than the franchise's first film. At least, that's what they say, and when it comes to the sequel to 2010's Kick-Ass was terrible — just plain awful. It was panned by critics across the board, being called "disastrous," "forgettable," and "disappointing." With Jim Carey playing another bad guy opposite Christopher Mintz-Plasse, we figured the second movie might have a fighting (ahem) chance. But alas, it's fairly clear the franchise should have left the first movie alone. Because Kick-Ass, the original film starring Nicholas Cage, Chloe Grace Moretz and Aaron Taylor-Johnson was a smash hit.

Taylor-Johnson plays Dave Lizewski, a high school student and avid comic book fan who is practically invisible to his classmates. Sort of like Spider-Man before he became Spider-Man. He's got a core group of friends and a girl he'd really, really like to bone, but other than that he's kind of a loner. Then one day, for no real reason at all, Lizewski decides he wants to become a superhero, because what the hay? He's got nothing better to do. Of course laughs and general bloodbaths ensue on his attempt at saving the world and getting the girl. Here's 11 things you might not have known about the film, which debuted in 2010 five years ago this month.

At the end of the movie, Red Mist utters: "As a great man once said: Wait 'till they get a load of me." This is a reference to Jack Nicholson's The Joker in 1989's Batman.

As Big Daddy, Nicolas Cage mimicked his character after original Batman Adam West.

Chloe Grace Moretz, who plays sailor-mouthed Hit-Girl in the film, says her parents knew what she was getting into when she took on the uber-violent and potty-mouthed role. But, she admits, "If I said a sixteenth of the words I say in the movie I would be grounded for the rest of my life for sure."

59 people are killed in Kick-Ass.

Nicolas Cage landed the role of Batman-esque Big Daddy, but before he was cast, Bondian Daniel Craig and action flick regular Mark Wahlberg were both considered for the part.

Though he plays villainous Red Mist, Christopher Mintz-Plasse originally auditioned for the part of Kick-Ass himself.

At one point in the film, Big Daddy is seen standing in front a billboard. If you look closely, you can see model Claudia Schiffer on the billboard, the wife of director Matthew Vaughn.

According to Oxford Dictionaries, the term "red mist" is derived from the mid-19th century, from the supposed physiological effect of a rush of blood to the head in anger or excitement.

Stan Lee has a cameo in the film as a man watching news footage.

Actor Dexter Fletcher plays a gangster named Cody who drives a yellow Range Rover. Director Matthew Vaughn's 2004 film Layer Cake , like Kick-Ass , features Dexter Fletcher in a nearly identical role — Yellow Range Rover and all.

Kick-Ass, while a parody of classic superhero films, boasts a cast full of actors who would go on to play characters in the Marvel superhero universe. Kick-Ass actors Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Even Peters, Nicolas Cage and Lyndsy Forseca all have played these characters.

Images: Marv Films; Tumblr; Giphy