7.24.2015

Kingsman: The Secret Service




Harry Hart (Colin Firth) is a master secret agent with class who recruits Eggsy (Taron Egerton) as a potential new Kingsman. When Eggsy was a child, his father was a Kingsman who sacrificed his life for the cause; to which Harry now feels guilt and keeps a watchful eye over Eggsy during the recruitment process. While keeping one eye on Eggsy, Harry and his team, including: trainer Merlin (Mark Strong) and Arthur (Michael Caine) begin an investigation on internet billionaire Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) and what he might have to do with the disappearance of V.I.P.'s from all over the world.

With Eggsy's story playing out somewhat like Men In Black, we are treated to multiple scenes where Eggsy faces off with other potential Kingsman in training; showing off Eggsy's unorthodox thinking and skill during various tests that the Kingsman throw his way. Whittling down the recruits through the testing, the scenes never really provide any thrill or excitement as you know that Eggsy will make it far into the training (or else, why have him in the movie?).



On the other side of the film, Harry and the veteran Kingsman begin to infiltrate the lifestyle of Valentine after academic professor James Arnold (Mark Hamill) goes missing and a rescue attempt on the professor fails. Harry begins to uncover a plot set in motion by Valentine to use an online app to control the world population and tries to prevent Valentine's Bond-like plot from occurring.

Co-writer/director Matthew Vaughn continues the job he did with Kick-Ass, though to a lesser degree in my opinion. Kingsman: The Secret Service is fun, but is bogged down by not being as fun as it wants to be and running a course that REALLY is similar with the plotline of Men In Black infused with heavy doses of the James Bond franchise. Eggsy's training sequences, to me, bogged the film down as I expected the training to be more and less by the book.



Colin Firth does a really good job as Harry, the spy with great dress sense and deadly skills to boot. Samuel L. Jackson is also having fun with his fashionable outfits (and hats) and a lisp for no other reason than it just seems funny. Main character Taron Egerton does a fine, if less impactful performance as Eggsy. He is able to help the movie continue onward, but certainly falls behind the acting of Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson. For me, though, the standout was Mark Strong's Merlin who comes across as a character with warmth and humor, but is also able to get in on the action when the time requires him to.

Kingsman: The Secret Service is fun, though not as much fun as it wants to be. Overall, you could do much worse and with the talent involved, there is something in the film that most people can find enjoyable.



6.8/10

2 comments:

  1. I enjoyed this one more than you as I thought it was great fun!

    I can't really argue with you about the pointless training scenes as Eggsy was always going to be the hero.

    Hoping that we will get another offering though

    K :-)

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  2. I'd like to see a second one, just get fully invested into the Kingsman world. I had fun with it, just think I might have fallen into the hype of it being the end all be all before seeing the film and might have been slightly disappointed.

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