Yeah, you heard me Bond, come at me bro! That’s essentially the attitude Kingsman: The Secret Service takes towards 007 with director Matthew Vaughn (who it could be argued gave Daniel Craig the push towards that famous role) relishing the chance to produce a colourful and anarchic middle finger to stuffy, serious, action flicks.
Kingsman is basically a very British Kick-Ass (Brit-Ass? Please don’t google that). It’s about a young man swept up into a crazy world of ultra-violence and over the top shenanigans. Just replace superheroes with secret agents and New York with London. Taron Egerton plays Eggsy a young cockney lad from a council estate whose future is bleak. That’s until he meets the suave Harry Hart (a fantastic Colin Firth) who gives him the chance to join The Kingsman, a super-secret organisation of spies who fight international crime.
From here we see the brutal training as the contenders are whittled down to find the best recruits. This section gives the writers a chance to chuck in some class warfare with all of the recruits being snooty shits apart from Eggsy. This is all fun stuff to watch and meanders on pleasantly until the actual evil villain’s plan jumps into action and gives us the best part of the whole film. Take one bad-ass Colin Firth, one American church, one evil smartphone app, throw them together and you get one of the most amazing, ridiculous, and violent fight scenes ever committed to celluloid. Its something that needs to be seen to be believed and its guaranteed to leave you out of breath.
While Vaughn is a master at directing brutal action scenes the script by him and Jane Goldman let’s the movie down somewhat. Dialogue is never as funny as it thinks it is and you also get the impression the writers don’t really know much about life in British council estates. It almost becomes a parody with the film-makers putting a young guy in a hoody, getting him to say ‘innit’ a lot and blasting out some Dizzee Rascal. Then there’s the confused themes of class and etiquette that ring hollow.
It’s all about the action though as Kingsman: The Secret Service is an exhilarating, colourful, bloody, action movie of the kind that isn’t made much anymore. In a world currently obsessed with superhero films its great to see a flick that is old-fashioned yet fresh and fun. With its charismatic cast and playful style its two hours well spent and a great antidote to the dreary antics of Bond and Bourne.
8/10
Have you seen Kingsman? Did it blow your mind? Is your name Chris Bridges, and you cry if anyone teases James Bond? Let me know in the comments below!
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Fuck you Boyd
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You sound both shaken and stirred
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Can’t friggin’ wait to see this! I’ve only been hearing good things and from your very enthusiastic review, the action sounds like it’ll rock my socks off (yeah, I said it).
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Haha that action is insane in it, and so so violent! You’ll love it!
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Brit-Ass! Hmm… I wasn’t that interested in this but it sounds kind of fun. Nice review. 🙂
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Keep hearing good things, will likely check it out sometime. Great review Mike!
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I loved every second of this movie until the Danish princess offered Eggsy access to her no-no place. That was just weird.
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That was weird. To be honest a lot of the jokes in the film fall pretty flat
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The more I hear about this, the more I want to see it. Coming out next weekend! I hope to see it then…while every other woman in America will be seeing Fifty Shades. Ugh. Anyway, great review, Mike!
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[…] the Bond films. That is, until the “end”. Literally. (You’ll get what I mean, Mike). […]
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Really enjoyed this but I found those parody elements difficult to take – it could have been so much better if they had tried to be a bit more original in their representation of class. I guess we don’t have to take any of it too seriously 🙂 It’s not up their with Kick-Ass for me but it is entertaining!
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Vaughn makes fun movies. And this one is no different. Good review Mikey.
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Great review, I’m definitely interested in seeing this movie.
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Still not sure about whether or not I should go and see this one. I am quite interested in this ultra-violence thing of which you speak, though. I’d like to know more. Much obliged for the review, Michael.
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Brit-Ass, ahahahaha!! Love that moniker Mikey and it’s absolutely spot on! Aside from the gratuitous violence that I don’t care for, I enjoyed this one immensely. The ‘head exploding’ scene is cartoonish but the scene at the church is more realistic and REALLY brutal & bloody which is excessive I think.
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[…] Mikey reviewed Kingsman: The Secret Service […]
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Had no plans to see this movie, but reading your review has changed my mind! I really like Layer Cake, it’s definitely an underrated film! More concise & less patriotic than the role Daniel Craig would go on to play… *cough, cough.
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I had a lot of fun watching this!
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I had a lot of fun at this one!
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