entertaining movie that doesn't always know when enough is enough

Rating: 7/10 (16 September 2016)

Is this a spoof? I can see why it's getting described this way, but Kingsman isn't really all that different from its James Bond source material. Yes, there's the occasional mocking reference to James Bond, but the overall effect is more a slightly cheekier James Bond clone than an actual spoof. It's also not more than mildly amusing.
But it is entertaining, mainly because of some terrific action scenes, some of which involve a woman amputee with swords instead of feet. These scenes are beautifully choreographed and often involve finding imaginative ways to knife and shoot people.
Unfortunately, the movie is a little too in love with this stuff. At a certain point no amount of fancy choreography could distract me from the feeling that I had just seen something similar 15 minutes ago.
The story is a rather messy one involving an evil billionaire fought by a mysterious spy organization made up primarily of lookalike square-jawed upper-class white guys bravely considering hiring a lookalike square-jawed lower-class white guy or a square-jawed upper-class white woman (who isn't lookalike because there's no one in the movie for her to look like).
I kept wondering if the movie would make some sort of comment on the archaic nature of the organization, but since it didn't one tends to assume that the makers see nothing wrong with a powerful, secretive organization of white preppy guys. It makes an interesting contrast with the only important black character being a terrible person.
Outside of that, I didn't really think much about the politics of Kingsman, but reviews like The Guardian's point out that it's pretty right wing overall. But because the movie is about 10% reactionary politics and about 80% stabbing people in the eye (the other 10% is for male bonding and dog walking) it's easy to ignore all that.
For me, the issue with the movie is not its politics but it's inability to curtail its impulses. Watching a guy stylishly kill about a 100 people at once is pretty entertaining for about the first 25 people, and then feels like punishment. Cutting between a big action scene and a suspenseful high-altitude sequence sucks much of the pleasure out of both. The final battle's disco concept is clever but the flashy lights take away from the action.
Still, Kingsman works more often than not, and while it's not consistently great, it has a decent mix of great and good moments and not that many bad ones. So overall, if you want mindless, violent action, this is worth watching.