Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Movie Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service


Matthew Vaughn's (Kick-Ass) vision of the world of Kingsman: The Secret Service will make your head explode.

The Kingsman are a group of international spies that are so top secret that none of the world governments even know who they are.  One of the members dies on a mission and Harry Hart/Galahad (Colin Firth, The King's Speech) feels guilty because it could have been prevented, so he presents a medal to the man's wife and small child.  He tells them, if they ever need help, to call the number on the back and give a certain coded message.  17 years later, the child is grown up.  Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton) calls in that favor of a long time ago, when he is picked up by the cops for stealing a vehicle.  He's a very intelligent, talented kid who just had a troubled childhood.  Hart knows this about him and by chance another Kingsman had just died on a mission to find a kidnapped professor (a nice cameo by Mark Hamill).  When he goes to bail Eggsy out, he also tells him about the open position.  When a Kingsman dies, the rest of them bring in a suitable candidate for replacement.  These candidates all go through rigorous training with only one victor claiming the vacancy.  Eggsy decides to go through the training.  While all this is going on a billionaire named Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) is giving the world SIM cards for their phones that would give everyone free internet access forever.  Of course, he's the villain, so there's a catch.  The training ensues, the villain's plans escalate, and it all ends in a glorious cacophony of violence.

This film is a bloody good time.  I mean that literally.  The violence in this film is not for the faint of heart.  It's a great send-up to the old spy movies, Bond in particular.  It does poke fun at them, but I feel it does it in a loving way, also paying homage to them at the same time.  If you like gadgets in your spy movie, it's got plenty.  Action, of course.  Humor, tons.  This film finds that fine line where it somehow manages to go over the top without actually crossing over into campy.  It knows it's ridiculous and embraces it.  Samuel L. Jackson plays a supervillain with a lisp, who projectile vomits at the sight of blood.  His lead henchman is a woman who bounds around on fake legs slicing people up with the swords sheathed in them.  On paper, that is absolutely absurd (let's be honest, it's absolutely absurd on film too), but you go with it.  It's bizarre, but in this over-the-top world, it somehow doesn't seem out of place.  Much of the humor plays the meta card by being jokes about what would happen in a typical spy movie.  Most of it was written cleverly enough to keep me chuckling throughout the film.

And it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, or a head, or gets impaled, or dies in one of any other multitude of ways you can think of.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, this movie drops the humor and goes balls to the wall with the violence.  I'm not sure what the death toll is, but it's fairly high, and you get to see most of them.  Like the humor, the violence is over-the-top, and you just go with it.  Most of it is pretty well choreographed and filmed.

The characters are great too.  Colin Firth plays the straight man to Jackson's crazy villain.  He gives us his best James Bond impression, and does it well.  He brings just enough seriousness to give that balance I mentioned earlier.  Because whenever Jackson is on screen, he just chews up the scenery.  Jackson pretty much gets most of the lines in the film that you'll remember later and laugh about.  Taron Egerton is fairly new to the game and he is given what is probably the most complex character in the film.  We watch him progress over the 2 hours from punk kid to spy material.  Egerton handles this progression quite well.  It will be interesting to see what this actor does in the future.  In turn we also get strong performances from the supporting cast including Mark Hamill, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, and another newcomer Sophie Cookson (who does well as another of the potential recruits).

This film is a wild ride that will have you laughing, cringing, and just plain having a good time.  It's a well balanced film that's both serious and self-aware.  It is the first good action flick of 2015, and sets a good bar for it's followers to try to achieve for the year.  Sit back, grab a popcorn, and just enjoy the show.

Rating: ********-- (8 out of 10) [matinee]

Memorable Quote:
Valentine: Is he dead?