Kingsman: The Secret Service

***Kingsman: The Secret Service*** is a 2014 action-spy black comedy film directed by Matthew Vaughn that stars Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, Sofia Boutella, Sophie Cookson, Samantha Womack, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Edward Holcroft and Geoff Bell. It is the very first installment in the *Kingsman* franchise.

## Plot

The film follows Gary "Eggsy" Unwin's recruitment and training into a secret spy organisation. Eggsy joins a mission, in brutal and comedic fashion, to tackle a global threat from Richmond Valentine, a wealthy megalomaniac wanting to deal with climate change by wiping out most of humanity.

## Why It Ain't That Kind Of Movie

1. Great performances, especially from Egerton, Firth and Jackson.
2. Great direction from Matthew Vaughn. He dropped out of *X-Men: Days of Future Past* (another great movie) to direct this.
3. Good story.
4. Some really funny moments including Eggsy stealing Dean's car and the opening scene with Professor Arnold.
5. The characters (especially Eggsy, Harry and Richmond) are well-written and likeable.
6. Intense moments such as the final fight at Valentine's mountain headquarters, the parachute jump and the scene where the bedroom filled with water.
7. Amazing score composed by Henry Jackman and Matthew Margeson. The track "Manners Maketh Man" is especially awesome.
8. Memorable lines including:
	* "Manners maketh man. Do you know what that means? Then let me teach you a lesson."
	* Valentine: "You know what this is like? This is like those old movies that we both love. Now I'm gonna tell you my whole plan, and then I'm gonna come up with some absurd and convoluted way to kill you and then you're gonna find an equally convoluted way to escape."
		+ Harry: "Sounds good to me."
	* Valentine: "Well this ain't that kind of movie."
	* "Mankind is the disease and I am the cure."
	* "Oxfords, not Brogues."
	* Valentine: "Is he dead?"
		+ Gazelle: "That tends to happen when you shoot someone in the head. It feels good right?"
	* Valentine: "No! No, it does not feel good. It feels fucking awful!"
		+ Gazelle: "What?! You just killed how many people in that church. This is one guy!"
	* Valentine: "No, no, no. They killed each other."
	* "As a good friend once said, manners maketh man."
	* Are we going to stand here all day... or are we going to fight?
	* Can't you see that everything I've done has been about trying to repay him?
9. Richmond Valentine and his equally evil assistant Gazelle are both great villains. Samuel L. Jackson had a lisp at the time of filming and the fact that Sofia Boutella is a dancer certainly help their performances.
10. Harry's death is quite unexpected and shocking.
11. The most famous scene is, perhaps, the church fight. Everyone at the church is brainwashed by Valentine into fighting each other, forcing Harry to fight for himself.
12. The pacing is great although it can be slow at some points.

## Bad Qualities

1. Some unlikable characters such as Charlie, Dean and Rottweiler.
2. The over-the-top action (especially for the church fight) can be a little too violent for sensitive viewers. It, at times, might look a little bit fake.
3. Product placement such as McDonalds.

## Reception

### Box office

*Kingsman: The Secret Service* grossed $414.4 million worldwide; $24.2 million of the takings were generated from the UK market and $128.3 million from North America.

Kingsman opened on 30 January 2015 in Sweden, UK, Ireland and Malta. In the UK the film opened with $6.5 million and debuted at second place (behind Big Hero 6). The following weekend it opened in two additional countries: Australia and New Zealand. It debuted atop the box office in both countries and had a successful opening in Australia with $3.6 million. In its third weekend, it earned $23 million from 4,844 screens in 39 countries. It topped the box office in three countries; Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand, the rest of which were dominated by Fifty Shades of Grey. In its fourth weekend, it expanded to a total of 54 countries and grossed $33.4 million from 5,940 screens. Its biggest opener outside of North America was in China where it earned $27.9 million. Other high openings occurred in South Korea ($5.3 million) Russia and the CIS ($3.6 million), Taiwan ($3.4 million), and France ($3.3 million).

In the United States and Canada, the film opened on 13 February and was predicted to debut to around $28 million. The film opened in 3,204 cinemas and grossed $10.4 million on its first day, $15.4 million on its second day and $10.4 million on its third day, for a weekend gross of $36.2 million (an $11,300-per-cinema average), finishing second at the box office behind Fifty Shades of Grey. During the four-day Presidents Day weekend it grossed $41.8 million.

### Critical response

*Kingsman: The Secret Service* received generally positive reviews from critics, who highly praised the stylized action sequences, direction, acting performances, villain, score and its dark humour, though some scenes were critiqued as over-the-top.

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes sampled 260 critics and judged 75% of the reviews positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The site states the fil is "Stylish, subversive, and above all fun". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The Movie Review Query Engine (MRQE) rates the film at 63 out of 100, based on 108 film critic reviews. According to CinemaScore, audiences gave the film a grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said of the film, "This slam-bang action movie about British secret agents is deliriously shaken, not stirred ... Even when it stops making sense, Kingsman is unstoppable fun". Jordan Hoffman, writing for The Guardian, said of the film, "The spirit of 007 is all over this movie, but Vaughn's script ... has a licence to poke fun. ... no one involved in the production can believe they're getting away with making such a batshit Bond." Comparing the film to those of Christopher Nolan, Hoffman said, "Despite the presence of grandfatherly Michael Caine, Kingsman's tone is about as far from the Christopher Nolan-style superhero film as you can get. Verisimilitude is frequently traded in for a rich laugh". Peter Bradshaw, writing for The Guardian, called the film "a smirking spy spoof, weirdly charmless and dated in unintentional ways", commenting that "it is a film forever demanding to be congratulated on how "stylish" it is."

Some reviewers were critical of the film's depiction of violence, which was considered to be too graphic for a comedy. Anthony Lane of The New Yorker stated, "Few recent movies have fetched quite as far as 'Kingsman', and countless viewers will relish the brazen zest of its invention." However, Lane was critical of the film's use of stereotypes. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times enjoyed the film, but criticised Vaughn's use of violence as a cinematic tool, calling it "narrative overkill". Jason Ward of The Guardian wrote that "[e]verything about Kingsman exists to disguise the fact that it is solidly conservative". His examples include "[t]he depiction of Valentine's plan as a throwback to a less serious era of spy movies [which] is revealed as a feint, with the ulterior motive of undermining environmentalists". Likewise, The A.V. Club's Ignatiy Vishnevetsky commented that, "Far from being a Team America-style send-up of gentleman spy movies, Kingsman is actually even more reactionary than the movies it's referencing; it traffics in the kind of Tory values Bond flicks merely suggest ... the thing is, the movie is fun, at least from a visual design standpoint, even though it's hard to separate its bespoke fashions, future-vintage gadgets, and aristocratic décor from its fusty worldview". Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com, who gave the film two out of four stars, likened Vaughn's script to the spy film equivalent of Scream and also criticised the overuse of graphic violence, despite its cartoonish rendering.