Birth of a Great Spy Franchise

Rating: 8/10 (10 October 2015)

When I first saw the trailer for Kingsman: The Secret Service , I thought of it as a Young Adult Spy Kids or James Bond. Don't get me wrong, I had every intention of seeing this movie because A) I like Spy Kids and James Bond, and B) I like Young Adult movies. But after it came out, I realized that this movie is actually rated 'R' which takes it decidedly out of the Young Adult genre. Regardless, it still landed on my "want to see" list because of the trailers and the marvelous tech they showed in it.
Right off the bat, the movie is violent. Over the top violent. Like, Kick-Ass and Wanted violent. In fact, it turns out that the screenplay for both Kick-Ass and The Kingsman was written by the same man that directed them, the very talented Matthew Vaughn. And the film itself is based of a comic book series written by Mark Millar, who also wrote both the Kick-Ass and Wanted comic books. (See a trend here?) The film has two different story lines as Harry Hart (Colin Firth) is attempting to stop the evil villain, Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) while Eggsy (Taron Egerton) is training to become a Kingsman. Throw in a bad ass female with blades for feet (Boutella), Michael Caine doing his thing, and more spy gadgets than you could shake a Q at, and you have a recipe for success.
The movie is a fun and fast paced run through the spy world, filled with evil villains, spies, and of course spy gadgets. In other words, go see it.