I’m a big fan of the James Bond franchise and in 2006, the
21st entry of that prestigious film series, ‘Casino Royale’ was
released in theaters. But this one was much different than the Bond films that
came before it and there was a fairly good reason for this as the producers
decided to reboot the series after the previous film, 2002’s ‘Die Another Day’,
was criticized for being way too campy. So as a result, they decided to go the
route of the recent ‘Bourne’ films and go for a much grittier take on the
character and it’s worked out pretty well for the most part. But if you’re one
of those people who misses all of those old-school spy movies then I think
you’re really going to enjoy ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’, which is based off
of the comic book series of the same name (minus the Kingsman part) by Mark
Millar and Dave Gibbons. This also happens to be the second major film from
director Matthew Vaughn to be based on a Millar comic, the other being
‘Kick-Ass’. In the end, ‘Kingsman’ is just as zany and ridiculous as those
aforementioned old-school Bond films… and also so damn fun thanks to Vaughn’s
excellent direction, a stylish look, and a top notch ensemble cast.
When one of his fellow agents dies during a mission,
Kingsman secret agent Harry Hart (Colin Firth) personally visits the agent’s
widow and their son, Gary ‘Eggsy’ Unwin. He gives them a medal with a phone
number on the back and tells them that, if they ever needed any help, all they
had to do was just dial the number on the medal and to use a special message.
17 years later, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) is now a juvenile delinquent living with
his mom and his abusive stepfather and is constantly getting into trouble with
the law. After one arrest, he calls the number on the medal and Hart ends up
bailing him out of prison. Eggsy ultimately learns all about the Kingsman and
is chosen by Hart as a potential candidate for an open position after another
agent is killed during a rescue mission. Eggsy is then enrolled into the
training program, which puts him and the other candidates through a series of
rigorous tests. While this is going on, technology tycoon Richmond Valentine
(Samuel L. Jackson) is developing a series of special SIM cards that, when
activated via a special program, sends out a signal that causes all humans to
turn violent. Valentine plans to use these cards to wipeout most of the human
population in order to keep it from further destroying the Earth, resulting in
the Kingsmen having to stop Valentine before his plan can succeed.
I’ll admit that when the first trailer for this film came
out, I wasn’t really sure what to think of it. It looked fine enough but at the
time nothing about it really stood out to me that much. But then I saw the
red-band trailer and that was the one that really clued me in as to what kind
of a film this was and that’s why this film is so damn awesome. As I noted in
the intro, it can pretty much be described as a love letter to the old-school
spy films (e.g. the pre-2006 Bond films) with its over-the-top tone and action
sequences of pure insanity. And even with that in mind, the film actually does
manage to stay fairly fresh in terms of its writing, spinning some of the old
spy film clichés on its head. Sure, the film’s violence can be just a tad bit
overly brutal at times but the film maintains a badass and stylish look,
similar to Vaughn’s previous film, ‘X-Men: First Class’, which also felt like
an old-school Bond film in regards to its tone and atmosphere. The action
sequences are excellent and the film is just entertaining from beginning to
end, though I must say the film really shines in the finale. Admittedly some of
Vaughn’s films have suffered from weak endings; heck, even ‘First Class’s
climax, while not bad, wasn’t that memorable either. But this is where the
movie really takes off in terms of its over-the-top action, including one of
the most memorable explosion sequences of all time.
One of the best parts of this film comes in the form of its
stellar ensemble cast, led by Colin Firth in what I’m pretty sure is his first
major role in an action film. And I must say that he handles that transition
pretty darn well. He more than holds his own in the action sequences while also
maintaining a great sense of charm and wit. Arguably even more impressive in
this is newcomer Taron Egerton, who also does a great job at conveying a lot of
charm and wit. The fact that he manages to hold his own alongside bigger name
actors like Michael Caine (who plays the role of the head of the Kingsmen
agents, Arthur) and Mark Strong (who plays Merlin, a senior Kingsmen agent)
shows that he has a very promising career ahead of him. And then we have Samuel
L. Jackson as the main villain Valentine. Admittedly, like how the first
trailer didn’t really ‘wow’ me that much, going in I felt that Jackson might
actually be the weak link as it looked like he was just acting way too over the
top for this role. But of course, knowing what kind of movie this is, it does
work and the end result is an incredibly charismatic villain that also has that
badass vibe that one can always expect from Mr. Jackson.
‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ is quite frankly one of the
coolest action films of the past decade or so. Like with his previous film
‘First Class’, director Matthew Vaughn, who if you ask me at this point can do
no wrong given his directorial track record, brings such a stylish look to the
film while also giving a nice big old dose of craziness in terms of its story,
action sequences, and overall tone and atmosphere. It’s not a spy film in the
veins of recent entries of the genre like ‘Bourne’ and the ‘Casino Royale’ era
Bond films but in this case that’s a good thing as instead it harkens back to
the spy films of old while also managing to keep things fresh for a modern era.
Yes, it’s over-the-top and ridiculous compared to the spy films of today but it’s
just straight up fun. In short, the end result is easily the first major ‘stand-out’
film of 2015. I know that this weekend a lot of people are going to go see ‘Fifty
Shades of Grey’ and that it’ll probably be the Number 1 film of the weekend.
For the record, I’m not one of those people who complains whenever audiences
make a film like that successful because that’s just mean. But in all
seriousness folks, believe me when I say that you’re definitely going to be
much better off with this movie.
Rating: 4.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment