Not just the best James Bond spoof yet . . .

Rating: 9/10 (19 February 2015)

. . . but KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE is even more important for its vicious critique of and poetic justice for the One Per Cent. In spoofing Bond, KINGSMAN touches all the bases with its own twists. Secret agent trainee "Eggsy" names his obligatory pooch "J.B."--not for Bond or James Bond wannabe (if he could just remember) Jason Bourne, but for Fox TV's loose cannon Jack Bauer. There are takes on the Bond gizmo's, the Bond martini, the "Bond girls" (Eggsy's are no holes barred), the Bond one-liners, the Bond villains, the Bond villains' mutant-like Henchpeople, the Bond predicaments, the Bond implausible escapes, the Bond outer space Hijinks, the Bond villains' verbal diarrhea, the MI6 elaborate hideouts, the villains' more elaborate hideouts, etc. David Niven's CASINO ROYALE Bond spoof was a total mess, and the Austin Powers series was ALL tongue-in-cheek spoof, laying it on way too thick most of the time. KINGSMAN hits a more perfect balance of wry, self-conscious (and often self-proclaimed) homage, and a movie with plots and characters the viewer can take somewhat seriously.
Regarding the One Per Cent, is it too much of a "spoiler" to say to watch carefully when "Pomp and Circumstance" starts playing in order to see Barack Obama's head explode? Unfortunately, in most of the 23 Eon Company Bond flicks out so far, Agent 007 only looks out for the interest of the One Per Cent, everyone else be darned. Refreshingly, KINGSMAN is just the opposite. When Samuel L. Jackson's villain comes up with the idea that a few billion "little people" need to be "culled" (or purged, for those of you non-lobster eaters), he has absolutely no trouble convincing most of the world's "elite" to go along with his plan to create more elbow room. ALL of the villain's Rich and Powerful collaborators' heads explode in a Candyland sort of way toward the close of KINGSMAN, thanks to Eggsy and his allies. Jack Bauer could be counted upon to behead a baddie or two, but it was just one at a time. KINGSMAN goes Bauer and the Fox TV thousands of times better. (What else would you expect from Twentieth Century Fox?).