This film was funny and action packed

Rating: 8/10 (14 February 2015)

Kingsman: The Secret Service is a British secret agent film that calls back to the old spy films, especially the James Bond series of films. There is a lot of fun to be had in this film. The acting is great all around, even the small characters that only have a minute or so of screen time are up to par. In terms of the plot there are very few issue I had with it. The training segment was cool but there was almost no training shown on screen, just tests that took place between the training. This made it kind of jarring to see a people gain tremendous skill so fast. The music is fun and fits extremely well into the fun, over the top action scenes. This whole movie is very self-aware about how over the top it is. There are many times in the story where characters will reference old spy movies and bring up how clichéd their current situations are. The dialogue is very witty so most conversations are very interesting to listen to. There are many interesting and unique characters that I loved watching interact with each other. Some of the accents can be a little thick so I may take a little time to get used to. The action is not to be taken seriously. If you've seen the trailer you know what I am talking about. People will be hit in the face and flip a couple of times before hitting the ground. This is definitely a positive; the film definitely gained a lot from that. The villain's motivation is kind of dumb, but you can get into it because of the self-awareness of the movie. The action scenes are phenomenal. While they can be a little shaky, you can definitely see the immense skill that went into them. The editing of the action is very original and blew my mind. Be warned that this movie definitely earned that R rating. This is the source one of two real negatives with the movie. The language is just filthy but does not feel like it had to be. I am perfectly fine with some F words during action scenes. I'm sure that if I was fighting for my life I would curse, too. The problem is that people cursed constantly, even if it wasn't necessary. It didn't feel natural when people would curse about small, irrelevant things. If you want an example of a movie that utilizes cursing is a realistic way, then watch the movie Chef, or V for Vendetta. I typically don't care too much about this but there was so much cursing in inappropriate places that it began to bother me. The gore on the other hand was fine. Yes, it was pretty gross and shocking, but the film did it rarely enough and never lingered on it for long enough to really bother me. There was a very unnecessary (and very brief) nudity scene at the tail end of the film designed to be funny, but just came of as awkward. My final complaint is rather small but there is one product placement for McDonalds that was so obvious and in your face that it took me out of the scene for a while. Be sure to stay for about minute after the credits roll because there is a little scene that concludes a somewhat important arc.