C.J. Foxx Movie House Reviews #6: Kingsman: The Secret Service

Have you ever seen a movie that from the moment the production companies credits roll that you know you’re going to like it?  I’m not talking about something like the Avengers, Fifty Shades of Grey (for our female fans) or some other flick you’re really amped up about. I’m talking about a movie you really don’t know anything about before you go in a watch it. The last one of those I had was when I saw American Hustle.  When Duke Ellington popped on I knew I was in for something special. The same feeling came over me when I heard Money for Nothing blare over the retro production titles and I was not disappointed.

Kingsman is a James Bond movie if you gave it the Super Soldier serum.  It accentuates all of the action with amazing hand-to-hand and gun play sequences, The eccentricities of the characters, the villian’s treacherous plot and the comedic elements the Bond Franchise is known for.  Kingsman does this in such a way that still feels like its own movie and not a Bond knock off.  I think part of reasoning comes from the fact that this movie is a Hard R loaded with violence and language. None of the bond films ever uddered the type of language used or displayed the level of graphic violence on display. It also has a distinctly British feel to it, which is absent from the Bond franchise.

The talk going into this picture is that it’s a bond meets X-men movie, but I don’t think that’s entirely accurate. I doesn’t help that director Matthew Vaughn’s last picture was X-Men first Class.  Kingsman simply goes into territory that the bond franchise never did: the recruitment of the spy. The story begins with a mission that results in the death of a Kingsman, who happened to be Colin Firth’s protégé.  He leaves a medallion for his protégé’s son Gary.  Flashforward to the present where the son now known as “Eggsy” has grown into a malecontent, Firth gets him out of jail and auditions  to be a member of the kingsman. The bond movie franchise never really established an arc about how James Bond became 007.  They did a teensy one in Casino Royale, but Bond was already a full on government agent before hand, not a little-car-stealing squirt with a smart mouth.

On to the Characters: The kingsmen are all named after characters in King Arthur’s court which is a cool touch. And the new recruits are trying to be the next “Lancelot” as he was killed by the female version of Oscar Petsorious during the opening scene while trying to save Mark Hamill of all people. (No seriously he’s in this movie) Colin Firth plays Galahad who is an elite agent of the Kingsmen, Mark Strong is Merlin the trainer of the new recruits and a former field agent himself and Sir Michael Caine is Arthur. Firth and Eggsy share a Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn type relationship from My Fair Lady.

Samuel L. Jackson plays the villain and he deserves his own paragraph. The villainous Valentine is basically Spike Lee, if he was a Bond villain.  He dresses in bright colors (including Knickerbocker Orange) and always has a baseball cap on his head even if he’s wearing a suit (usually of the NY Yankees) He’s afraid of blood for some reason and they gave him a lisp, which is incredibly awkward like Danny Glover’s was in Shooter.  Valentine is a billionaire movie mogul/lobbyist who has this plan of getting everyone in the world a free sim card that gives everyone free internet forever. 

While the recruits are being thinned out Firth is investigating Valentine who they believe is responsible for Lancelot’s death and eventually Firth has dinner with Valentine eating McDonalds burgers and fries of all meals.  This is one of the many times the movie discusses its love of spy movies and the clichés within.  Teamwork is a major theme in Kingsman which is notably absent in Bond films.  The most teamwork you’ll see in a Bond movie is when Bond is shagging his girl.

During the training each of the recruits is assigned a dog and Eggsy’s is named J.B. but as he explains it not after James Bond or Jason Bourne but rather Jack Bauer. Nice touch.

Firth follows the clues to a church in Kentucky where Valentine does a test of his device on the church goers and the action sequence that ensues is amazing. I’m glad to see that there are some film makers that are willing to step up the bar when it comes to action scenes. This scene is on par with the two Raid films and the Red Circle Sequence in John Wick. The scenes are frenetic but not shaky to where you can’t follow along like in Captian America the Winter Soldier.  This is another place where the R rating helped.

This film did not waste any of the two hours and change in screen time.  Many subtle points are referenced in later acts of the picture. It may seem like I’m glossing over much of the picture, but this one is well worth the watch and I really don’t want to spoil anything big.  It’s not without faults as I found the fight scenes to be a bit CG heavy and a bit exaggerated for my liking, but this goes along with the over the top feel of the movie.  You have to suspend your disbelief a bit on this one, as it’s more like the Roger Moore era, than the Daniel Craig era of bond films. the “Star Wars part” of the third act is a bit goofy. This is the best movie I’ve had the pleasure to review thus far and I give it 8.5 out of ten spy movie clichés.

C.J. Foxx 

Author of Super-Hero Bowl VI
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http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GGTL79M