Kingsman: The Secret Service

Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman: The Secret Service is an imperfect, but mostly fun and affectionate tribute to old fashioned British spy thrillers.  It has all the trappings of the genre you would expect, such as everyday items like umbrellas, pens and shoes serving a double purpose as weapons, a megalomaniac villain with a secret base hidden within a mountain, and lots of violence with a little bit of raunchy sex.  The movie has a devilish sort of glee to its humor that really appealed to me, and while not all the jokes hit, they land a good amount of the time.

It would almost be too easy to label Kingsman as a companion piece to Vaughn's 2010 effort, Kick-Ass.  Both are violent and loopy satires of popular film genres (spies this time around, superheroes in the earlier film), and both are based on comic books by Mark Millar.  In my personal opinion, this is the better movie.  Kick-Ass suffered from an uneven tone that switched back and forth between being a sweet-natured Judd Apatow teen comedy, and an ultra-violent Spider-Man movie by way of Quentin Tarantino.  It was jarring for me the way the movie switched back and forth between both styles, sometimes from one scene to the next, and it took me out of the film.  Kingsman finds the proper tone early on, and sticks with it.  It's essentially a parade of pop culture, interspersed with some well shot action sequences that are incredibly violent, but are done in such an over the top live action cartoon style, it's hard to be offended. 

As the film opens, we are introduced to the secret world of the Kingsman, proper British gentlemen who also protect the world from terrorists and villains with hi-tech spy gadgets and weaponry.  Our entry into this secret world is an agent by the name of Galahad (Colin Firth).  He's the sort of man who can take out an entire room of thugs without spilling his drink, or messing up his finely tailored (and bullet proof) suit.  Galahad is investigating a series of mysterious kidnappings and murders, and the trail seems to have led him to a billionaire Steve Jobs clone named Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), who talks with a lisp and has secret goals for a new world order with the help of his popular cell phones and computer products.  While investigating this recent case, Galahad has also decided to take under a new student named Eggsy (Taron Egerton), who starts the film off as a lowly punk teen, but Galahad believes can make for good Kingsman material if he gets the right training.

The film crosses back and forth between Galahad's investigation, and Eggsy's training to become a Kingsman, along with a small group of other hopefuls.  Eventually, the two plots must connect, and Eggsy finds himself aiding the Kingsman in infiltrating Valentine's secret headquarters, and does battle with the villain's lead henchman.  In the tradition of the early Bond films, the henchman is a deadly assassin with some kind of bizarre weapon.  In this case, it's a woman named Gazelle, an expert martial artist with blades for legs.  She is played by Sofia Boutella, a professional dancer from Algeria making her Hollywood debut.  Boutella commands the screen, and it really is a shame that the movie doesn't give her more chances to show off what she can do.  Still, her big fight with Eggsy is memorable, and that's what counts when it comes to playing a deadly henchman to the lead villain.  Speaking of the villain, Jackson is clearly having a great time, and even gets off some funny lines.  But, I think the lisp that he talks with was just a bad idea.  It doesn't get the laughs that I think the filmmakers intend.

Kingsman is fun and free-spirited for the most part.  It's constantly spoofing the conventions of the spy genre, but not so obviously that it feels like the movie is constantly winking at the audience.  Like the best satires, the actors are not in on the joke, and pretend that this is supposed to be serious.  Colin Firth is obviously reveling in his first opportunity to play an action role.  Not only did he supposedly do a majority of his own fighting and stuntwork, but his performance in general has just the right amount of proper British attitude and self-reference humor.  He comes across as someone who would snap someone's neck, then sit down for a spot of tea without missing a beat.  It's a wonderful, restrained performance, and that's why he sells and gets some of the biggest laughs.  Behind the stuffy demeanor, Firth is clearly having a blast, and lets us in on his fun without breaking the character.  It's hard to explain, but if you watch his performance closely, you can see certain moments where he can hardly contain his smile or excitement.  Young Taron Egerton also impresses in the lead role, handling both his dialogue scenes and action scenes with the same amount of expertise.

Really, the only thing holding this movie back from being a great success is some pacing issues.  The movie does run a bit long, and the Kingsman training scenes are nowhere near as clever, exciting or as fun as the rest of the movie is.  There is also an action sequence set inside a church which I think was intended to be one of the highlights of the film, but runs a bit too long and quickly becomes repetitive.  The movie runs a little over two hours, and while it doesn't overstay its welcome, it does feel like it should have been trimmed slightly.  And while it's always good to see Michael Caine in a movie (he plays a head member of the Kingsman), he's given so little to do that he basically comes across as a glorified cameo.  In retrospect, these problems may seem minor, and they are.  But they do slow down and hamper the film just a little from time to time.

Even with some faults, Kingsman serves as the perfect jolt of adrenalin for the dreary winter months, as well as the antidote for the equally dreary winter movies I have had to sit through lately.  This is a fast-paced and fun film with a wicked sense of humor, and a satirical edge that actually works.  The film's studio, Fox, has been promoting the movie a lot, showing they have a lot of faith in it.  They should.  This one is a lot of fun.

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