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

Now You See Me

You know what I saw? A waste of talent.

From hackmeister Louis Leterrier (The Transporter, The Incredible Hulk and Clash of the Titans) comes a film that thinks it is so smart that it will talk down to you and tell you that you're stupid and nowhere near as smart as the film you are watching is. If you've seen any film like this, you will be heads and tails much smarter than this drivel.

Honestly, this is my third time trying to write this review after it has been deleted multiple times. I have spent way too much time trying to get this review out than this film deserves. This is my shorter review of the film as I really don't want to have to rewrite this damn thing again.

Magicians, The Four Horsemen: Daniel Atlas, (Jesse Eisenberg) Merritt McKinney, (Woody Harrelson) Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) are approached by an unseen figure. One year later, they are performing a magic trick in Las Vegas where they rob a bank in France and make it literally rain money on the audience. In the crowd for the trick are The Four Horsemen's benefactor, Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine) and an ex-magician who debunks tricks, Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman).

As robbing a bank is a federal crime, FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes is assigned to the case with Interpol Agent Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent). The audience spends most of the film with these two characters because if we spent the bulk of the film with The Four Horsemen then we would know all the twists that were coming our way.

Unfortunately for the audience and director Louis Leterrier, these twists are so obvious and predictable, than anyone who has seen any film will know where Now You See Me is heading way before we get there. The film tries its hardest to be clever, but no matter how many twists of over the top camera movements that are thrown our way, its all just smoke and mirrors to try and cover up a bad script and an overall bad film.

The biggest issue is the waste of talent this film attracted. Most notable for being wasted are Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. Michael Caine especially, is wasted as the very rich benefactor. In the second half of the film, his character practically disappears while Morgan Freeman basically has one purpose in the film. And speaking of one purpose, Dave Franco's Jack also serves only one purpose and literally felt like the writers had nothing to give this character except for his one purpose. Just a waste.

You're smarter than this film thinks you are. Don't be like me and giving in to seeing the film.

4.0/10

As an aside, here's a picture of Mark Buffalo. Much more entertaining.