Strong cast, weak movie

Rating: 4/10 (24 March 2015)

I hate to rain on the parade of all those who seemed to have loved this movie, but for some of us, it was a parade of violence and nonsense. Unless you enjoy exploding heads and slashing prosthetic legs. Of course, maybe all that was meant to be funny. Kingsman is a mixture of a James Bond parody and a video game -- a spoof, of sorts, that comes off more like an industry in-joke. Unfortunately, with the video game portions, you have no joysticks to control the action. And there was no joy. The best thing about the film was the cast of old and familiar faces, including Mark Hamill 37 years after Star Wars. I'm sure some of the actors did it just for the money -- but some of us in the audience paid the price.