REVIEW : Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)

It was back in June 2014, when I went for a premiere screening of The Fault in Our Stars, that I first saw the trailer for Kingsman. It had all the right notes to get me excited : witty dialogue, men in well-tailored suits, super secret spies, and class that is only attributed to the English, all wrapped up in one nice bundle. I remember turning to my friend and whispered "I WANT to watch that movie", to which she nodded excitedly. 

Fast forward to about eight months later, it's finally here. And all I can say is: it was worth the wait.

Kingsman tells the story of well, Kingsman, a super secret spy organisation based in the UK with their agents dressed in bespoke suits and having code-names derived from the Knights of the Round Table. The Kingsmen are the modern-day knights. 

Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton) is a street kid who grew up in a broken family and an abusive stepdad. While he started out life with so much potential, he eventually decided to just waste his life away with petty crime without a life goal in sight. But his life gets a chance to do a 180 when he is recruited by Harry Hart, code man "Galahad" (Colin Firth), to compete with other candidates in order to become a Kingsman agent. While part of the film is about the candidates' training, a much greater threat looms in the background in the form of billionaire philanthropist Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), who talks with a lisp, favours baseballs caps and McDonald's, all the while planning to wipe out most of the human population in order to save the world. 

"Wiping out the human race to save the world? Trust me, it totally works."

A quick look at director Matthew Vaughn's filmography, you'll see that this man have worked on some really fine films, films that I completely adore. Stardust (2007), Kick-Ass (2010), and of course X-Men First Class (2011) and Days of Future Past (2014).

Now before these two X-Men movies came out, I don't remember ever being a fan. I do remember being dragged to the cinema, by my parents, when I was a kid, against my will, to watch the previous X-Men movies. Obviously kid-me was not a fan. BUT post-First Class me? Total convert. So you can easily see what a special place Vaughn's X-Men movies have in my heart. Thus, I was even more pumped up for Kingsman when I knew that Vaughn was going to be on it. I have faith in him. 

And I was not wrong. 

Kingsman excels in all the genre it is labelled under. Spy? With all the cool gadgets and save-the-world, check. Comedy? With the funny dialogues, hilarious Easter eggs in the form of silly front-pages of newspapers, as well as more than one scene that made everyone cackle with laughter, chee-ack. Action? With all the well-choreographed fight scenes, featuring a single man in a tailored suit taking down an entire mob of enemies,

Check with an A-star on the side.

A true Kingsman's wardrobe

Now one of the high points of Kingsman, which I love, was the road it decided to take. Kingsman is a spy movie while at the same time a mild parody of all the spy movies out there. Unlike the Bond films featuring Daniel Craig, it was clear from the very beginning at the opening credits that this movie was not going to take itself too seriously; it wans't afraid of making fun of itself. I mean, you have heads that literally explode like into fireworks, and Galahad's stuffed dog that watches over him whenever he decides to take a dump. 

Is Kingsman ridiculous? At times, yes. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not. The ridiculousness worked in the movie's favour and without it, Kingsman wouldn't be what it is. When Kingsman decides to be silly, it's one heck of a fun ride.

Because OF COURSE everyone wants to know Brad Pitt ate your sandwich

One thing that that kindda bugs me was the fact that in all the posters I've seen of Kingsman, none of them featured Taron Egerton's name. The ones that are on the posters are Michael Caine, Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson. But I guess I know where they're going with this. Prior to Kingsman, Egerton is practically a nobody while the other three are big, BIG names, all with multiple awards under their belts. And while some might argue that having his face in the centre of attention of the posters was enough, but I still think that it would have been nicer if his name was written there as well. I mean, give the guy some credit, right? Egerton was excellent in this film. 

And Mark Strong too. He had a pretty huge role as Merlin, as the person who works behind the screen. Here's an idea. Maybe they should take out Michael Caine and stuff the two other names in? He appeared less frequent than either Egerton or Strong.

But whatever, that's just a little rant of mine over something insignificant. 

"It's a bulldog, innit?"

Nonetheless, the cast did an excellent job of bringing Kingman alive. Whether it's Colin Firth as the mentor, Taron Egerton as a brutish street kid or a refined Kingsman, and also Samuel L. Jackson as the antagonist that doesn't quite fit into your usual bad-guy mold.

As long as you're not put off by the gratuitous violence (which mostly ends up being hilarious and entertaining in this film), do watch Kingsman. You're in for some super happy fun times. 

"My name is Hart, Harry Hart."

I rate it : 8/10 stars

THE GOOD : ALL the fight scenes; the overall style; Samuel L. Jackson as the eccentric bad guy; this movie is an absolute joy to sit through

THE BAD : The beginning can be a little bit slow; some parts of the film are predictable; violence can be off-putting to some (although I assure you, there's very little blood and gore)

WATCH IT IF YOU...

• ...are sick of the somber British spy. (I'm looking at you, Daniel Craig-era James Bond)
• ...are eager to renew your faith in dem classy English spies.
• ...like something that's intense, shocking, heart-pumping, and very, very funny.
• ...want to watch Colin Firth take down an entire mob, one angry person after another, in a variety of very colourful ways 

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE (2015)

Genre : Spy Action Comedy

Runtime : 129 minutes

Director : Matthew Vaughn

Cast : Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong, Michael Caine