Veteran entertainment reporter Richard Wilkins has joined a chorus of condemnation for the new film Kick Ass, saying "don't even think about" seeing it.
The Nine Network entertainment editor awarded the movie just one star out of four while speaking on the TODAY show this morning.
MOVIEFIX: Interview with 'Kick Ass' director
"I can't possibly encourage you to go and see this overhyped, inappropriate sensationalism that glamourises kids with guns," he said.
"I just think it is wrong ... so wrong."
In the film, which is co-produced by Brad Pitt and stars Nicolas Cage, young characters who dress as superheroes use obscene language and commit extreme acts of violence.
The graphic scenes include a young girl shooting a man in the cheek and also being shot at by her father.
"The film is inappropriate — it's excessively violent and there's nothing particularly clever about it," Wilkins said when contacted after the review.
"It aspires to be a high camp black comedy in a Quentin Tarantino way but falls short of that."
Wilkins said he would not want his 14-year-old son Christian seeing the film.
"I don't want him seeing kids with guns and knives, killing people randomly and hearing young children say the sort of language they use in the movie," he said.
"You'd hope most teens would be old enough and wise enough to make these judgements themselves."
Several Australian family groups have also spoken out against the film, which features frequent use of the "c" and "f" words.
"It's a disturbing step into the perverse, revelling in the corruption of an 11-year-old girl," Focus on the Family's Deb Sorensen told News Ltd last week.
"It's different to any other superhero film which focuses on good triumphing over evil."
In the US the film is given an R rating, banning people under the age of 17 from seeing it, but in Australia its MA rating means children as young as 15 can see it unaccompanied.
The Office of Film and Literature Classification warns that the film contains strong violence, coarse language and sexual references.
The film opens in Australian cinemas today.
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