Kingsman: The Secret Service (***½)
Directed by: Matthew
Vaughn
Starring: Colin
Firth, Taron Egerton, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Sophie
Cookson, Sofia Boutella, Mark Hamill, Jack Davenport
Seen: February
14th 2015
***½ Out of
****
If you’re a
fan of spy movies and enjoyed the decidedly violent and less-than-polite vibe of
director Matthew Vaughn’s take on the superhero genre in Kick-Ass, then you’re
sure to enjoy Kingsman: The Secret Service. It’s violent and features pervasive
“colourful” language and is definitely not for the young ones. But it is heaps
of fun, and tells a high-stakes story in a sufficiently self-deprecating manner
to make the over-the-top classic Bond-type plot perfectly fit into the world
Matthew Vaughn has created for the Kingsman secret organisation. What Kick-Ass
did as a superhero movie, Kingsman does as a spy movie, with slightly less
visceral violence and also not quite as much foul language. Not everyone will
enjoy it, that’s for sure, but I enjoyed it a lot.
The Kingsman
corps is headed up by Arthur (Caine), and sports well-tailored and modern knights
of the round (rectangular, in this case) table, fighting behind the scenes, but
on a global scale, for justice and the good of mankind. The movie starts with a
bit of history, as Galahad (Firth) and a colleague, together with two probationary
agents, are on a raid in the Middle East. Galahad’s trainee sacrifices himself
to save the team, and Galahad offers a promise to the agent’s family, if they
ever need help, just call. Seventeen years later, when that agent’s son finds
himself in trouble with the law and the local criminals, he calls the number. Galahad
comes to Eggsy’s rescue at just about the same time the Kingsman corps lose
Lancelot to the machinations of the movie’s villain Richmond Valentine
(Jackson), and Galahad offers Eggsy a chance to become what his father was so
close to becoming so long ago. Eggsy enters into Kingsman training, led by
Merlin (Strong), and could eventually perhaps get a chance to stop the threat
posed by Valentine and his blade-legged hench-woman, Gazelle (Boutella).
The movie is
well produced from start to finish and in this really fun and entertaining
movie two sequences definitely stand out. The first is a scene so utterly
absurd that it starts out as offensive, as members of a (far-right)
congregation brutally murder one another with extreme prejudice, with a plot
explanation for this only offered once every drop of blood has been spilt. Once
you realise the point of it though, the scene makes sense in context of the bigger
movie. It also serves as a biting bit of criticism from outside the church as
to how members of the church can sometimes treat one another, and whether
intentionally so or not, it is scathing. The other scene that stays with you is
set to Elgar’s famous Pomp & Circumstance, as the movie builds to its
climax a short while after this familiar piece has faded: it has to be seen to
be believed, but it is, in a sense, mind-blowing…
Colin Firth
is worlds removed from his usual dramatic roles, but equally fantastic, as Harry
Hart, or super-spy Galahad. He is trying to get Eggsy Unwin, played brilliantly
by relative newcomer Taron Egerton, up to espionage-speed before global tragedy
is initiated by the megalomaniacal Richmond Valentine, played with relish by
Samuel L. Jackson.
Kingsman: The
Secret Service is loads of fun and is yet another movie that I will definitely
not hesitate to add to my personal collection once it becomes available. This
is an excellent send-up of spy movies and a great and tense spy movie by
itself, all in one.
Comments