Kingsman: The Secret Service
Well there we are then, first film back after our mini hiatus and it's a cracker. Kingsman: The Secret Service is a spoof spy, thriller with a bit of comedy thrown in, just in case. In fact one could go so far as to liken it to a brand mash-up of James Bond, Austin Powers, Kickass and My Fair Lady all rolled into one, with the lovely Colin Firth as the nations favourite Kingsman, lovely Colin.
Essentially the plot of Kingsman: The Secret Service is your bog standard spy thriller. Megalomaniac super villain discovers something to rule the planet, in this case the answer to global warming and sets off to put his plan into action. To save the planet, enter the Kingsmen, a top secret super efficient, anti-terrorist, anti-establishment, anti-everything team of crack spies and agents, ready to take on and win their every mission.
However, this time it is slightly different, as an existing agent; Galahad (aka Harry Hart) played by Colin Firth rescues from the street, for want of a better description, the son of another agent, an agent who just happened to save the life of Galahad, while losing his own and as a result, Galahad is indebted to him and who wouldn't be?
Still with us?
So Taron Egerton plays Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin, son of a long dead Kingsman. Eggsy has dropped out of school, dropped out of the Marines and fallen in with the wrong crowd, but when he takes it one step too far and gets embroiled in a contretemps with some local hard nuts, he ends up on the wrong side of the police cell door. However and here we roll back 17 years, when Galahad (remember him? Colin Firth, yes?), had to tell the family of the death of his Kingsman colleague, he left a special medal with Eggsy, on the back was a number, it takes just one phone call to this number and he is free. Galahad takes him under his wing, as he believes Eggsy has the making of a Kingsman and so we have a street kid rubbing shoulders with, to coin a phrase from the film; "aristocratic snobs, born with a silver spoon stuck up their arse!" on the Kingsman training programme.
Are you confised by our synopsis? Watch the film, it will make sense honestly. It's a decent story, but with the multi-faceted threads, you're better off watching it to get the lay of the land, rather than read us wobble on about it!
So anyway, to the highlights, without doubt the best performance comes from the lisping Samuel L. Jackson as the megalomaniacal Valentine, a billionaire intent on changing the whole world. Jackson is sublime and a joy to watch. As is Colin Firth, playing the quintessentially English gentleman spy, with a voracious penchant for eliminating the enemy, without having to loosen his tie.
Taron Egerton puts in a great performance as the young Eggsy, employing enough south London twang to make the character very believable. Look out also for the bladed legged Gazelle played by the very pretty Sofia Boutella, her flashing legs of steel could put Oscar Pistorious to shame, not that he isn't currently shamed enough.
Other highlights include a welcome appearance from Michael Caine as Arthur, who quite rightly sits at the head of the Kingsman table. Look out for Mark Hamill too, he of Star Wars fame, he makes an appearance as a professor working with Valentine on the global warming issue, an issue that quite literally blows his mind.
Which brings us to the subject of the very gratuitous and very bloody and violent nature of some of the scenes. Well, a lot of the scenes! There is a lot of flashing blades, firing guns and pointy things being stuck into all and sundry. There's more CGI violence in this film than you can click a mouse at. Luckily the way it is done and the way it is portrayed is erring on the side of comedic, a pseudo cartoon violence if you will, gruesome but inherently funny.
We enjoyed this film, if you refer back to the mash up of film genres and titles we referenced in the first paragraph then you will have an idea of what kind of film Kingsman: The Secret Service is. A bloody good one, pun intended.
As to the scores, a mixed bag of very high end ratings which aggregates to;
TNiFN Rating 96%
Blimey! That is a good score, so go and buy the film. Enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment