Classy, exciting and just outright entertaining.

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2015)

"Manners Maketh Man."
This is one of those movies that completely takes you by surprise. I enjoyed it immensely. James Bond type-ish British spy film, but with way WAY more wack and awesomeness. Matthew Vaughn is a great director. I've watched all of his films (except Layer Cake) and the guy just has a knack of delivering really enjoyable/entertaining movies (Stardust, Xmen - First class, Kick ass).
The cast delivered great performances all round. Colin Firth simply KICKED ASS. Loved his character and how classy yet deadly he was. Taron Egerton, the protagonist, was some nobody to me before I saw this movie. Now, he is a star in the making. Samuel L.Jackson, while didn't stole the show or anything, was a pretty good villain with a funny lisp condition.
The plot actually felt somewhat fresh and wasn't your typical 'Take over the world' type scenarios that you see in this genre. Although I have see the main mechanism elsewhere, the reasons for doing, the justification and all that was something that I could standby with. Also, the movie had some messages about over reliance on smartphones, privacy hacks etc which I really liked.
Coming to the action, let me just say that it was just awesome. The pacing was so well done that many scenes had me on the edge of my seat with my heart thumping like crazy. The hand to hand scenes were also well executed. Full of gore, long takes, class and no excessive shaky cam and fast cuts bullshit. Add dark humor layer to it all and it was just a wonder to watch it all. The Church scene in particular really WOWED me.
Sound effects and OSTs were also perfectly edited in scenes, enhancing the experience, adding more adrenaline, class, humor etc as required.
The only complaint I had was that the movie tried to develop some romance and while I'm REALLY glad it didn't linger on it, it did kinda felt out of place and just tacked on.
Overall, it's the best movie of this year so far for me. I just hate myself for not seeing it in the cinema.
8.6/10