Kingsman: The Secret Service

Plot synopsis:
In the year 1997, a helicopter flies into a compound in the Middle East. Four men apprehend a terrorist leader and tie him to a chair. One of the men, Harry Hart, a.k.a. Galahad (Colin Firth), threatens to shoot the terrorist until he gives him answers. The terrorist lifts his head to reveal a grenade pin in his mouth. Harry's comrade Lee (Jonno Davies) jumps on the terrorist and covers the explosion, sacrificing himself to save his partners. Harry's other two partners, Merlin (Mark Strong) and Lancelot (Jack Davenport), remove their masks. After noting Lee's sacrifice, Harry welcomes Lancelot into the Kingsman agency.Harry visits Lee's wife Michelle (Samantha Womack) to inform her of her husband's death. He gives her a medal of valor in Lee's honor, with a phone number on the back. If she ever needs a favor, she's to call the number and use the phrase "oxfords, not brogues" to let him know it's her. Michelle rejects the medal. Harry then goes over to Lee's young son Gary, a.k.a. Eggsy (Alex Nikolov). He hands him the medal.Seventeen years later in a chalet in Argentina, Professor James Arnold (Mark Hamill), an expert on climate change, is being held captive by a group of thugs. There is a knock at the door. One thug answers it while pulling out his pistol and finds Lancelot. Lancelot shoots the thug before the thug can shoot him and dramatically fights and kills the rest of the thugs before helping himself to a drink. He's interrupted by another knock at the door. When he opens it, Lancelot is sliced down the middle by a woman with bladed prosthetic legs, Gazelle (Sofia Boutella). She cuts Arnold's bonds with her blade-legs, and hurries to cover all the dead bodies with towels and tablecloths, explaining to Arnold that her employer is squeamish, before opening the door to admit the boss: tech billionaire Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson). Valentine and Gazelle take Arnold with them when they go.Back in London, Harry goes to a tailor shop that is a front for the Kingsman headquarters. He meets with Merlin and their superior Arthur (Michael Caine). At a virtual meeting of all the Kingsmen (eight plus Arthur), they toast Lancelot and each member is tasked with proposing a new member to replace him. Arthur tells Harry that those involved in Lancelot's death also had ties to incidents in Uganda and Chechnya. Harry refers to what is evidently an old disagreement with Arthur about the type of person they want to recruit; Harry says the world is changing and calls Arthur a snob.We catch up with Eggsy (now played by Taron Egerton), now in his early 20's, living with his distraught and co-dependent mother and her abusive new husband Dean (Geoff Bell), along with Eggsy's baby sister. They live in a ratty flat and are financially insecure. Eggsy goes to the pub with two friends, where they spot Dean's group of goons. The goons bully Eggsy and his friends into leaving. Outside, Eggsy reveals to his friends that he stole the goon's car keys. They take his shiny new yellow sports car, do some donuts when he runs out and yells at them, and drive off, only to come across the police. In the ensuing car chase, Eggsy drives the car backwards through heavy traffic while his friends taunt the coppers until he hits another car. He tells his friends to run for it and distracts the police by ramming their car.Eggsy is detained at the police station. He refuses to give up his friends' names despite the threat of 18 months in prison. Allowed one phone call, he takes out the medal he wears around his neck and calls the number on the back, identifying himself. The person on the other end of the phone says that he has the wrong number. Just in time, Eggsy remembers the phrase "oxfords, not brogues." The voice on the phone says, "Your complaint has been duly noted," and moments later, Eggsy is free to go.Harry introduces himself to Eggsy in front of the station. The two go to the pub and discuss Eggsy's rather undistinguished record, which Harry seems to know all about: Eggsy showed great promise as a gymnast but gave it up. He also dropped out of the marines. There was some involvement with drugs and petty crime, and he's currently unemployed. Harry makes his disappointment clear. Eggsy calls Harry a snob in his turn, pointing out that people make decisions for good reasons -- he left the marines because his mum freaked out at the thought of losing him the way she lost his father -- and jobs aren't easy to come by.Harry offers to help, emphasizing his debt to Eggsy's father, but Eggsy declines just as Dean's goons approach to make more trouble. Harry calmly tells them to leave, but the lead goon is rude to him and tells HIM to leave. Harry walks to the front door and locks it, stating, "Manners maketh man." With the hook of his umbrella, he grabs a mug and swings it at the lead thug, hitting him in the head. Then he makes short work of the others, and even makes some of them beat each other, to Eggsy's surprise. He pats Eggsy on the shoulder and leaves him after being assured that Eggsy won't tell anyone about Harry or what he's just seen.Eggsy returns home, and Dean violently confronts him over what Eggsy did with his mate's car. Michelle tries to intervene, but is shoved aside. Harry overhears the struggle through a mic that he placed on Eggsy's shoulder. Harry speaks into it and tells Dean to let Eggsy go or he will report Dean's various crimes to the authorities. Eggsy runs out of the flat and evades Dean's goons yet again.Eggsy goes to the tailor shop that Harry mentioned to him. He finds Harry, who proposes the Kingsman candidacy to Eggsy. Eggsy decides he's got nothing to lose and joins Harry as they go underground. On the way down, Harry explains that the Kingsmen are an independent secret service, beholden to no government and thus above politics. They were founded after World War I, when many rich families whose heirs died in the trenches looked for a cause to leave their fortunes to and found it in the Kingsmen. Harry and Eggsy board a small shuttle that takes them to meet the other recruits, who are gathered in the stately home that serves as the Kingsmen's center of operations and development. (The filming location was Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire.) The recruits are housed together in a barracks that has toilets, showers, and beds in one room. Eggsy is quickly befriended by a girl named Roxy (Sophie Cookson). He gets teased by a boy named Charlie (Edward Holcroft) and his buddies, who are quick to notice and remark, insultingly, on the class difference between Eggsy and all the others.Meanwhile, Valentine has taken a gruesome posthumous photograph of the bisected Lancelot, with Lancelot's face sewn back together like a baseball, to Washington DC. Valentine is complaining that the CIA and FBI have no clue as to who this agent is or why he was involved in anti-Valentine activities. As the camera pans back, it becomes apparent that Valentine is filling in the US President on his plans for a final resolution of the humans as virus problem--and the US President is going to go along with it!The Kingsmen notice that Professor Arnold is no longer missing, so Harry finds him in a lecture hall and tries to make him say who held him captive. Arnold yells in pain, then his head explodes. Two goons enter the building, forcing Harry to detonate a hand grenade before jumping out the window. He is slightly caught in the explosion and is left in a coma. Valentine learns of Arnold's death and decides to investigate who is looking into them.As the recruits are sleeping, the barracks starts to fill with water. Everyone but Eggsy swims to the toilets to run shower hoses down them -- there's air in every toilet on the other side of the drain trap. Eggsy tries to pull the door open but he can't. He then swims to the mirror and smashes it, releasing the water into the next room where Merlin was overseeing them. Although he commends Roxy and Charlie for getting to the air in the pipes and Eggsy for the mirror, Merlin says everyone failed because they didn't use proper teamwork and lost a recruit. The camera cuts back to the barracks where the drenched body of Amelia (Fiona Hampton) lies on a bed.Meanwhile, Valentine and Gazelle meet with Swedish Crown Princess Tilde (Hanna Alström) and the Swedish Prime Minister (Bjørn Floberg) over dinner, where Valentine proposes his plan for controlling climate change. The PM is on board, but Tilde thinks Valentine is crazy. She leaves the dining room and calls her bodyguards. Gazelle runs out and kills the guards with her prosthetic legs, taking Tilde captive.As the next step in their training, each recruit must train a puppy. Eggsy chooses a small pug, thinking it's a bulldog. The dog doesn't properly listen to him at first, but he becomes attached to it and names it JB (after the 24 TV series character Jack Bauer).After Harry recovers, he, Merlin, and Eggsy learn that Prof. Arnold had a chip implanted in his neck that made his head explode. The Swedish PM has the same implant, with a similar scar under his ear. Merlin traces this back to Valentine. Eggsy comments that Valentine is a genius, and he shows Harry and Merlin a video of Valentine's latest announcement. He is set to distribute free SIM cards around the world: he's offering free cell phone service and free internet for everyone, forever. (He doesn't explain why and apparently no one asks.) Valentine is also suspected in the disappearances of numerous world leaders and some celebrities (including Iggy Azalea).Harry goes undercover to Valentine's estate to investigate Valentine's plans. Gazelle wheels out a fancy dining cart. Lifting the silver cover, she reveals McDonald hamburgers, which they eat paired with very expensive wine. They discuss their admiration for James Bond movies, but Harry doesn't get much information other than seeing one of Valentine's aides carry a pamphlet for a hate group church in Kentucky.The recruits are down to six: Eggsy, Roxy, Charlie, and three of Charlie's friends. Their next assignment involves jumping out of a plane and landing as close as possible to a target on the ground. Roxy hates heights and gets encouragement from Eggsy. After they leave the plane, Merlin announces that one of them has no parachute and they need to figure out what to do.Panicking, one recruit opens his chute too early. Eggsy has everyone join hands before pulling each others' chutes. When only he and Roxy are left, they pull Roxy's chute at 300 feet (very late) while Eggsy holds on for dear life. Eggsy and Roxy land exactly on the target. Merlin commends Charlie, who was close, but fails the others and sends them home. Eggsy complains to Merlin about being singled out to be the sacrificial lamb, asking if he's more expendable than the others. Merlin tells him to get rid of the chip on his shoulder and releases Eggsy's parachute -- it turns out Merlin was fibbing about the missing parachute.Eggsy meets Harry at the Kingsman tailor shop, where Eggsy will be fitted for a bespoke (custom-tailored) suit. Harry calls it "the modern gentleman's armor," not only because of the social benefits it confers, but because Kingsman suits are bulletproof. Learning that dressing room one is in use, he takes Eggsy into dressing room three containing a hidden room filled with the modern gentleman's armaments: umbrellas like Harry's that conceal both a firearm and a bulletproof shield, as well as hand grenades that look like cigarette lighters, pens that trigger a poison, signet rings that deliver 50,000-volt shocks, and pairs of shoes (oxfords and brogues -- Harry takes a moment to explain the difference) with poison-tipped blades. When they return to the front of the shop Valentine and Gazelle walk out of dressing room one; Valentine was being fitted for a morning suit because he's been invited to the queen's box at Ascot. After a tense exchange, Valentine leaves in search of a hat, and Harry leaves Eggsy in the tailor's care.On their next assignment, Eggsy, Roxy, and Charlie are sent to seduce a young woman at a nightclub. Shortly after each delivers their line, all three are drugged by an interrogator. Eggsy wakes up to find himself tied to train tracks in a dark tunnel. The interrogator tries to get Eggsy to tell him about the Kingsmen and Harry, but Eggsy refuses to talk. The train runs over him, but Eggsy is dropped into a little hole and isn't hurt. Harry emerges and tells him he and Roxy passed this test. They watch Charlie taking his test, but he refuses to die for the Kingsmen and he is sent home.As part of their last test, Arthur and Merlin take Eggsy and Roxy into separate rooms and tell each to shoot their dog. Eggsy fails to do so, but a gunshot can be heard from Roxy's room. Arthur sends Eggsy home. Eggsy takes Arthur's car and drives back home, disappointed. He hugs his mother but then sees she has a black eye. Furious, he goes by the pub to find Dean. Eggsy is set to fight him until the car drives itself to Harry's place. He is disappointed with Eggsy for failing his test (not to mention stealing Arthur's car), and reveals that the gun had a blank in it. He also reveals that Amelia never drowned and that she works with the Kingsmen in Berlin. Roxy, having passed every test, becomes the new Lancelot.Harry goes to Kentucky to attend a service at the hate group church. He hasn't heard much of the bigoted preacher's nasty sermon before he gets up to leave. Across the street, Valentine and Gazelle prepare to activate a signal built into Valentine's free SIM cards; they want to see how many people in the church will be affected. The signal goes live and causes everyone, including Harry, to go into a berserk rage and attack each other. Harry shoots several people in the head, as well as violently stabbing, bludgeoning, impaling, and blowing up anyone who comes near him, until he is the only survivor. Eggsy, Merlin, and Arthur watch from their respective locations.Outside, Harry finds Valentine and Gazelle waiting for him. Valentine explains that the signal from the SIM cards triggers aggression and represses inhibitions. He says that in the kind of old movie they both used to love, this would be the point where the villain explains his evil plan and the hero makes a clever escape. He says this isn't that kind of movie, then he then takes out a gun and shoots Harry in the head, killing him. Eggsy screams in horror, while Valentine is appalled at having killed someone.Eggsy goes back to the tailor shop to meet with Arthur. Arthur mentions that Harry recorded Valentine's confession, which has been passed along to the authorities. (In other words, the Kingsmen aren't going after Valentine.) When he offers Eggsy a drink in Harry's honor, Eggsy notices that Arthur has an implant scar under his ear. Arthur was swayed by Valentine when he proposed his plan of mass murder; we flash back to a scene where Valentine explains to Arthur that humanity is like a virus infecting the planet, and just as your body develops a fever when you're fighting a virus, the earth is heating up. Only drastic action will prevent total annihilation ("either the virus kills the host, or the host kills the virus"). That drastic action, Valentine says, is to cull the earth's population, and he has a plan. Back in the present, Arthur toasts Harry, and he and Eggsy drink. Arthur takes out his pen to activate the poison that he put in Eggsy's drink, only to find himself dying. Eggsy switched the drinks moments earlier, having distracting Arthur by asking him if the paintings on the wall were of former Kingsmen. Arthur dies on the table.Eggsy goes to Merlin and Roxy with the information he's just received, and they head off to thwart Valentine's plan. Roxy is sent into the upper atmosphere, lifted by two giant balloons, to launch a missile at one of Valentine's satellites. Merlin and Eggsy board a private plane to infiltrate Valentine's mountain base, where he's hosting a party for everyone involved in his plan. Eggsy, wearing the bespoke suit Harry had made for him, poses as Arthur and uses his invitation to get inside. When he reaches the party, he orders a gin martini, "stirred for 10 seconds while glancing in the direction of an unopened bottle of vermouth."Roxy gets within range of the satellite, but one balloon bursts as she reaches the edge of the atmosphere. She manages to launch the missile just before the other balloon bursts, sending her plummeting back to the ground. Spinning wildly, she deploys her chute and lands safely.Back at the party, Merlin reminds Eggsy that he needs to find a network and get him online. Glancing around, Eggsy notices the Swedish PM on a laptop and prepares to apprehend him. After some chit chat, Eggsy tranquilizes him and gives Merlin the access he needs. Eggsy is about to leave when Charlie shows up and holds Eggsy with a knife to his throat, alerting Valentine that there's a spy. Eggsy electrocutes Charlie with the ring on his finger then runs back to the plane while evading and shooting through Valentine's gunmen.Meanwhile, Roxy's missile hits Valentine's satellite and delays the broadcast of the berserker signal. Eggsy gets back to the plane just as Merlin's program finishes running a system analysis of Valentine's security. Merlin informs him that they can't leave just yet as he's unable to hack into the biometric security system. Instead he needs Eggsy to get back to the party and make sure Valentine's hand never touches his desk.Hearing that it'll take an hour or two to get his satellite back up, Valentine piggybacks off one of his cohorts' satellites and moves it into position to reconnect the chain. Realizing this from the plane, Merlin informs Eggsy of the time crunch, and warns him that Valentine's got a present for him. After taking out multiple gunmen, Eggsy is finally surrounded and unable to deal with the number of people closing in on him. Backing up into a cell door, he tells Merlin that he's fucked. Looking out of the cockpit of his plane, Merlin returns "As am I," as gunmen wheel an anti-aircraft machine up. Coming to terms with his end, Eggsy calls Rox and asks her for a favor: to call his mom and have her protect herself and her baby from others, and to tell her he loves her.Moments before Valentine's troops attack, Eggsy asks Merlin if he can activate the implants that were of no use to them earlier. Merlin grins and sets about doing so, much to Valentine's horror. After Merlin triggers the implants, a symphony of fireworks begins, with guests' heads popping off in colorful explosions in time to the music. Every participant in Valentine's plan is killed aside from Valentine himself, and Gazelle.Following that spectacle, Merlin and Eggsy celebrate their small win before Eggsy hears banging and angry remarks coming from the door behind him. Opening the small window, he sees Swedish Crown Princess Tilde, who asks if he can get her out. He replies asking for a kiss, saying he's always wanted to kiss a princess. She returns that she'd give him more than just a kiss if he does. Before he can open the door, Valentine taunts Eggsy, saying that the plan is still in motion as he's still alive.Valentine turns the signal on, and shots from around the world show people turning aggressive and fighting starting with Eggsy's mum, who was just instructed by Roxy to lock the baby in the bathroom and throw away the key. Merlin tells him to get a move on, as Valentine has started the signal. Looking into the cell, Eggsy says, "Sorry, love. Gotta save the world." Princess Tilde tells him "If you save the world, We can do it in the a------" and Eggsy matter-of-factly responds that he'll "be right back."Eggsy manages to get back in range of Valentine and Gazelle's control center. He shoots at them, momentarily taking Valentine's hand off the scanner and stopping the signal. Gazelle bursts through the glass and tries to kill Eggsy. The two fight and finally jump at each other. Gazelle attempts to cut Eggsy with her legs, but Eggsy poisons Gazelle by knicking her with the blade in his shoe. He then pulls off one of her legs and hurls it at Valentine's back, impaling him. Thus, every signal is deactivated for good. Merlin and Roxy congratulate Eggsy for saving the world.Eggsy walks up to the dying Valentine, who asks if this is the part where he says a really bad pun. Eggsy tells him, just as Valentine told Harry before killing him: "This ain't that kind of movie." After watching Valentine die, Eggsy grabs a bottle of champagne with two glasses, and runs back to Princess Tilde's cell. Unable to open the door, he asks Merlin for help and Merlin tells him the code for the lock. Eggsy enters to a bent over princess.The closing credits begin, but we cut to Michelle and Dean in the pub. Eggsy enters, dressed in his bespoke suit. He tells Michelle that his new job has given him benefits, including a house; he invites Michelle, and pointedly not Dean, to live there with him. Dean, with his goons around him, responds with threats. Eggsy locks the front door and says what Harry once said -- "Manners maketh man." As Harry did before him, he grabs a glass mug with his umbrella hook and throws it at Dean's face. He then faces the other goons and, with a grin, repeats another line of Harry's: "Are we going to stand around, or are we going to fight?"

Tags: comedy, murder, cult, violence, flashback, action, comic, brainwashing, revenge

Review:
'Kingsman: The Secret Service' was being shown just around the corner from where I live, and because I loved two of director Matthew Vaughn's previous films, 'Layer Cake' and 'Kick-Ass', I naturally took the chance to see it.
I don't know, maybe Matthew Vaughn has read that interview too and saw the potential, because 'Kingsman' is pretty much that: An ultra violent, funny, crazy, foul-mouthed James Bond film (with a little bit of 'Men in Black' and 'Mission Impossible' thrown in).
Needless to say, I was thrilled.But it's also a fantastic action film with an amazing cast (Oscar winners Colin Firth and Michael Caine, plus Sam Jackson AND Mark Hamill) and spectacular, over-the-top fight-scenes that in some instances even rival films like 'The Raid' for their sheer visceral intensity.
Matthew Vaughn has become renowned for taking on action-comedy projects, for instance 'Kick-Ass' (which is still stronger than this but only just), and along the way has kept that feel-good British aspect to it that makes our greatest secret agent (James Bond) such an icon.
OK, Bond is kind of cool (I hated the last two, though), but now we finally got a film that takes spy movies to the next level.
Not since 'District 9' have I had that feeling during the watching of a film like "this movie just does everything right" (by which I mean of course: it plays exactly to MY taste).
Compared to this film, every James Bond movie released after 'Licence to Kill' looks like a snore-fest.
Colin Firth's aloofness was crowned with a kick-ass bite, Samuel Jackson brings his role back to old fashion comedy, strongly supported by Mark Strong and Michael Caine.
007 meets Kick-Ass. Kingsman: The Secret Service marks the third film in a row that director Matthew Vaughn has adapted from a comic book background.
Where Vaughn's vision lies, and so-far proved by his former comic adapted films is that they draw a clean balance to where drama and serious character development ends, and cartoonish humour meets, leaving a unique entertainment that stands out.Based on the comic by Mark Millar (who also created Kick-Ass), the film sees a young – no better way to put it – chav, called Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin (Taron Egerton), taken under the wing of Harry Hart (Colin Firth), a spy for her majesty's secret service.
Jackson); an ego- centric - Steve Jobs-type - billionaire madman (with a lisp), who hates the sight of blood – yet holds a vision of mass biological warfare.Licenced to thrill, Kingsman' is almost a love-letter to the James Bond films – but not too far as a parody, like Austin Powers - but more a homage to the franchise - a 007 meets Kick-Ass, of sorts.
At a point, Colin Firth's character, Harry, even mocks the thought by saying 'give me a far-fetched, theoretical plot any day'Fans of Bond and Kick-Ass are certain to love it, as through rollercoasters of action, comedy and espionage, comes a bucket of winks, references and nods to the world of spy movies.
Just like the colourful, gadget ridden Bond films of the 1960's, Kingsman is very fun to watch, with 'wham, bam, thank-you ma'am' style of mayhem, one- liners and bonkers soundtrack crazed all over it.The comic the film was based on was already hugely entertaining – in fact, probably the best we have read.
Littered with Millar's creative quirkiness and with Vaughn's auteur film-making, has left a stylized-spectacle of ultra-violence.Portraying the lead character of 'Eggsy', Taron Egerton (also in this month's Testament of Youth), proves to be an outstanding newcomer as he brings the character to life with an energizing vibe of a comparing ethic of chav lifestyle vs.
I'm happy to say that Kingsman is probably the most fun I will have in a cinema screen this year.As I've already said Spy films get compared to James Bond, so let's begin with that shall we?
The best example of this I can give is in the opening sequence of the film, there is a glass of whisky, a lot of people die and there isn't a drop of said whiskey spilt, and at that moment Kingsman sticks two fingers up at the past and says "we're the future" and from that second onwards Kingsman is its own movie.
Kingsman has so many pro's to it that you can easily overlook the minor short comings, because in the end the film has a baddie who has blades for legs, I mean who doesn't love that?What I like most about Kingsman is that even with all its madness it still manages to have some kind of heart; the entire movie is kind of a think piece on class war and the importance of legacy.
He steals every scene he is in, and his action sequences are the best ones in the film, but I'll get to that later.Newcomer Taron Egerton plays the new recruit Eggsy, a rebel with a lot of heart and dedication to his family and friends.
Egerton makes him instantly likable as the lead and spawns the right emotions to help the audience almost instantly know his feelings and the tone of the film.The story overall is a typical formulaic spy plot, though Vaughn adds some more contemporary and ideological elements and twists (that have taken popularity with superhero films lately) into it to make the film more different and exciting from the stereotype James Bond films.Overall, Kingsman: The Secret Service is a roller coaster of a film, that seems to pick up and slow down at the perfect moments.
The way the creators put a different spin on the superhero genre in Kick-Ass, was very much how they put a spin on the Spy movie genre in Kingsman: The Secret Service.
The movie is about a young teenager from London called "Eggsy" who is chosen by a professional agent from a super secret organisation who call themselves the "Kingsmen" to go through the deadliest "job interview" to be the next Kingsman spy.That said I must say I was not disappointed.
After watching this movie Daniel Craig better take notes because there is a new agent on the block and that is "Eggsy'.That being said Kingsman: The Secret Service is the best movie of 2015 so far.
This time the villain that the agency has to stop is Samuel E, Jackshon ,who is a billionaire Eco-terrorist who has as goal to kill a respectable present of the world population, something like the Nick Fury turns bad and he is hilarious!As for the action, is extreme well choreograph, the stunts, the gore, the kills are so well make that is like the comic book ,tha this series is based came to life.
Everyone from Austin Power to Borne and the granddaddy of them all (possible that is true;)) James Bond are mentioned both as role model and poking fun to some of the plots holes that they have in their stories.The dialogues are also very well written (I suspect Tarantino has put his hands in to that) and the changing between the polite British tone and the ripped fire cursing made me laugh my ass off.
The great result must be from the fact that everyone must had a blush working their and it was apparent to the way the characters were reacting to their environment (bonus fact to work their ,you could work beside Mark Hamil himself!).In the end is a enjoyable spy film ,with elements of spoof films of old and I recommended to all, just make sure that in the company you don't have a person with a wick stomach, did I mention the gore?
Having really enjoyed/loved 'X Men: First Class' and 'Kick Ass' and being someone who likes a lot of the actors, 'Kingsman: The Secret Service' did seem really intriguing.There was the intrepidation of whether it would balance the violence and humour well, whether the violence would feel too much or whether the humour would leave a bad taste in the mouth.
It sends up the spy genre (primarily James Bond), very like 'Kick Ass did with comic books, and does so brilliantly.'Kingsman: The Secret Service' is stylishly and audaciously made, with slick visual effects, very imaginative camera work and editing in the action scenes that gives the film an almost operatic grandeur (like in the fight scene in the church), very cool gadgets, richly coloured lighting and audacious production design.
Not just achieving the right balance of humour and violence (injecting much needed fun into a genre that has become increasingly serious over the years) and keeping the story absorbing and the characters interesting, but standing out in particular were how he properly allows the audience to properly take in what is happening in the action, without jumping around incoherently or being static, and the huge amount of work that he even puts into the little things like with the opening credits.The film's script is deliciously irreverent, sometimes raunchy, unrelentingly vulgar and very witty, with a plethora of laugh-out-loud funny to hilarious moments.
The film does deal with the twist well, it could easily have been out-of-place, clichéd or overly silly but it's actually a lot of fun with a touch of humanity injected.'Kingsman: The Secret Service' contains some very memorable characters, including a hench-woman with legs that can kill.
That is not to dispute Michael Caine, who is more than dependable as a somewhat ambiguous sort of character, and Mark Strong who has a knack of making even weak material interesting, or Sophie Cookson, very fetching though in a slightly underwritten role, and Sofia Boutella who nobody wants to mess with.If there is something that lets 'Kingsman: The Secret Service' down it is the ending with the anal sex.
They try to compensate lack of quality humor with endless profanities.None of the characters is really attractive except for Firth's and only to some extent.This is for teenagers who use to watch all these horror movies with people cut to pieces and whatnot.Crap like this deserves minus 3 stars..
Having built high expectations from an almost 10 out of 10 IMDb rating and portrayed as a great spy thriller in the reviews we went to watch the movie but were extremely and totally disappointed and disgusted with everything in the movie.
Wow,this movie started off good.There was a good story with the son joining the secret Kingsmen just like his father, then stopping someone who wants to cause chaos in the world.
The difference between the IMDb rating and Metascore should tell you enough.I see between 50 and 100 movies per year and this is the worst one I have seen in quite a few years.I cannot believe how such a good cast on paper can deliver such a poor performance.
just saying...The film itself: Is what I have called in the past a "bumblebee" movie in that on paper it should not work, but wow in real life it does.The ultimate iteration of the 1960s pseudo spy thrillers (OUR MAN FLINT) with the perennially overexposed Sam Jackson doing yet another variation of his character in UNBREAKABLE and in fact he did a better job in the earlier film.Yet the production values are so sharp, so superb, so technically perfect that, with a tight script and great acting, the whole thing works a treat and may possibly be one of the most entertaining films of the decade.
it has great action and enthralling heroes and villains alike yet, in the mix of all of it, the movie doesn't take itself to seriously.If you have not taken the time to get to a theater to see this I highly recommend you do.
It is funny, violent, irreverent, violent in a Tarantino sort of way, punny, action wrought with gratuitous violence, oh so wrong, perfectly scripted, amazingly executed (save, I don't know why the lisp), and absolutely NOT what you would expect from a British film of this genre.
This movie takes the genre and put it in a more modern respectfulness but funny, uncensored and violent way.It twists and distorts the usual clichés in a timely and funny shape, it uses very funny villains, amazing fight bloody hilarious scenes and no stop action.
A bizarre chapter in the otherwise distinguished careers of Colin Firth, Samuel Jackson, and Michael Caine.This felt like two movies -- the first 60 minutes or so coming off as a James Bond wannabee film, albeit not gaining much momentum.
Other cringe-worthy moments include Samuel Jackson's exaggerated and offensive speech impediment, and an amputee antagonist who uses her prosthetic razor-sharp extremities to slice ginsu-like through a cast of extras with stomach-turning graphic effect.All this may attract and intrigue a certain (and large) percentage of the movie-going public.
The film focuses on younger characters, so it feels like a movie for young people.
It's violent, with some surprisingly fresh martial arts and a cool choice of music to go with it!Kingsman: The Secret Service is different to your usual run of the mill spy movie.
With an absolutely enthralling story, that goes beyond just taking the mick out of spy movie clichés, brilliant performances, epic special effects, massively exciting action and absolutely stunning direction, this is a film that lets you be entertained to the max.I'll start with what I thought was the most amazing part of this whole movie: the action.
As we've seen in Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, director Matthew Vaughn knows how to make a properly exciting action sequence, but I've never seen him do it to the extent seen here.Some of the battles in this film go on for up to 5-10 minutes, and whilst I expected that seeing all that violence for so long would be tiring and boring, I was absolutely exhilarated by absolutely every action sequence here, thanks to Vaughn's stunning direction, using the shaky cam to add to the grittiness but still making it clear as day as to what's happening, as well as some fantastic songs to accompany all the action kicking off.But it's not just the action that makes this film so good, the story is absolutely spellbinding too.
The first half has very little to do with being a parody, and is on its own an interesting and of course hugely entertaining plot, introducing the wide variety of characters in a unique way and grabbing your attention right from the off.Of course, the whole movie is a comedy as well as an action-packed thrill-ride, and it doesn't disappoint on that front either.
Jackson does a great job as the insane Bond villain, helped by a scary but still entertaining performance by Sofia Boutella as the Oddjob-ish evil sidekick.Overall, there's no escaping the fact that is one of the most entertaining and exhilarating films you'll see all year, filled with stunning action, direction, performances, plot and comedy, and that's why it gets a 9.2 out of 10 from me.www.themadmovieman.com.
previews for this film even made it seem like a good family movie..but it's rated R..
Most of what little plot exists was just an excuse to put more extreme violence on the screen.I was tempted to give this film a higher score, like 2 or 3 out of ten, because of Samuel Jackson's character.
I have never seen acting as bad as Samuel L Jackson's acting in this movie and I also have no idea why people like Michael Caine agreed to be in this rubbish.This film has been totally overrated by the media and has had ridiculous blanket advertising in most UK cinemas.
The Plot.Based upon the acclaimed comic book and directed by Matthew Vaughn, Kingsman: The Secret Service.It tells the story of a super-secret spy organization that recruits an unrefined but promising street kid into the agency's ultra- competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius.I WANTED to like this movie.But it's derivative, predictable and actually insults your intelligence.One major problem is that the Brits are trying to make an American movie.
I do not recommend this at all, I have such a hard time picking out a movie that I like, that a director made his best possible film: thought about his actors not looking bad for being in his film.i think I'm putting ethics on the movie makers, I should stop doing that..
This is not surprising given the film is based, as was Kick-Ass, on a new comic book series by Mark Millar (this time with Dave Gibbons).Colin Firth plays Harry Hart (aka Galahad) a member of a secret spy network called Kingsman.
This is by far one of the dumbest movie I've seen in the last couple of years.Extremely violent just to be violent, totally cliché plot with some completely ridiculous scenes- blowing up the heads of all the "bad" politicians or the main character going to have sex with Swedish princes after his main "battle"...
It was.Overall the film manages to have the right balance of comedy and over- the-top action movie violence.
Mark Hamill, Michael Caine, Samuel Jackson, Colin Firth among others both pay homage to the Bond style thriller while introducing new elements (Jackson's particular performance is hilarious.) Watching in the theater was surprisingly enjoyable because, not in spite of, the other audience members that made obvious comments during some action sequences but were stunningly silent in others.
Kingsman like Kick Ass is a action packed and comedic film from X-men first class director Matthew Vaughn.
The film has been marketed in a way which well respected actors such as Colin Firth, Samuel L Jackson, and Michael Caine are all involved in a comedy / adventure film, which is true, however anyone that has seen Kick Ass will know what is going to happen.
Kingsman: The Secret Service is the most typical Mark Millar/Matthew Vaughn movie you'll ever get.
The movie is very original, there truly is not, nor do I think there ever will be, a film quite like it.