Kingsman: THE SECRET SERVICE

20th Century Fox

Rated R

Running Time: 129 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Kingsman: THE SECRET SERVICE on YouTube.

   

In Twentieth Century Fox's Kingsman: The Secret Service, a smart orphaned street punk Taron Egerton is recruited by tailor Colin Firth/Galahad to join an independent international intelligence agency to stop megalomaniac Samuel L. Jackson from committing genocide.

Based on the comic book, The Secret Service by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar, and Directed by Matthew Vaughn, Kingsman: The Secret Service is basically classic James Bond movies meets the British agents from The Avengers as well as a mix of Men in Black, without the aliens, and My Fair Lady, as the movie follows the recruitment and training of potential secret agent Egerton in which Firth/Galahad sponsors Egerton to compete with other various young potential agents for the Kingsmen, which includes candidate Sophie Cookson, and trained by Mark Strong/Merlin to become the next Lancelot agent. The Kingsmen are modern day Knights of the Round Table from Arthurian legends, with leader Michael Caine as Arthur. This is an over-the-top comic book spy film - which is similar in plot to Tom Clancy's novel Rainbow Six - and is a proposed origin film for a new proposed film series. The graphic violence in the movie is lessened by the comic depiction of the violence, but is still rather graphic.

It seems funny to me, but rather more appropriate to me that Egerton's training from Strong/Merlin did not relate to Egerton's final fight scenes in the movie, despite their relationship - but rather it was Egerton's training from Firth/Galahad which trained him for Egerton's final fight scenes. I wanted to see more of a relationship between Egerton and his dog J.B. which added some comedy relief. Actually, I wanted to see more scenes with the trainees and their dogs. I believe the dogs should have been a major part of their training.

I liked the fact that Kingsman has a world-wide scope, like a true James Bond film dealing with various countries and heads of state, including heads of state Hanna Alstrom and Bjorn Floberg. Having Colin Firth doing 80% of his own stunts made his performance even more believable. I also liked the fact that the Kingmen are gentlemen, with A Gentlemen's Guide for a strict code of conduct since "Manners Maketh Man," This Gentlemen's code of conduct is a major aspect of Firth/Galahad's relationship with Egerton. I also liked the fact that the Kingsmen have a stylish line of tailor's clothes in conjunction with men's style retailer Mr. Porter. The collaborations between luxury retailer Mr. Porter and various heritage brands is the first of its kind to make Kingsman: The Secret Service the first film with outfits from the movie available for the moviegoers to buy.

I was not crazy about Jackson's lisp in the movie, until I found out that his lisp represents a typical "dysfunction" of some form of a James Bond villain and is reminiscent of Jackson's own lisp when he was younger that he had overcome. It is quite ironic that Jackson's character is named Valentine and that the movie was released on Valentine's Day weekend. In a cameo role - based on a combinations of characters from the comic book, including himself - having Mark Hamil using his Joker voice was a little distracting to me considering his character as I wanted to hear his normal voice, but it is cleverly ironic that Hamil is in the movie after being in the original comic book.

It was funny to me that at the end of the movie, while I was leaving, a lady was telling the usher who was cleaning up, "That was a great movie, except for the end. That was so strange." I thought the ending was totally appropriate for a classic James Bond takeoff.

Rated R for graphic violence, language, nudity.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Follow us on Facebook: Pancho's Movie Reviews