Kick-Ass for middle-aged mopes, this flat, ugly satire of fanboy culture stars Rainn Wilson as a repressed short-order cook who reinvents himself as a masked avenger. The flabby protagonist despairs after losing his wife (Liv Tyler) to a drug dealer (Kevin Bacon), but a cheesy TV show about a Christian superhero inspires him to become the “Crimson Bolt.” Wielding a pipe wrench in lieu of superpowers, he vanquishes criminals and innocents alike. Ellen Page flounders as his borderline-sociopathic sidekick, resorting to twitches and grimaces because writer-director James Gunn has given the game actress little to utter beyond profanity. This movie is too pedestrian for camp, and too scattershot for an action comedy.
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