Kingsman: The Secret Service (Film Review)

“Manners maketh men”, says Colin Firth after being offended in a bar. He slowly locked the doors and windows, and formally introduced a fight. All of a sudden, he shields himself with a bulletproof umbrella from a gunshot and stings one of his opponents. And proceeds with his unfinished drink afterwards. At this point of the movie, Matthew Vaughn introduces us of how this film will become for the next minutes: extremely violent yet irresistibly and ridiculously tasty. ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’, doesn’t only use over-the-top violence as part of the thrill—but of the fun aspect of the experience. I have never smiled so much while watching a movie as I had with this.

The movie centers on an elite, well-funded secret-spy organization Kingsman that consists of a group of sharp-dressed, suave and well-trained gentlemen and targets terrorists around the globe. When one of their comrades died because of a failed mission, the team looks out for a replacement to his chair. Teenager Eggsy comes in the list, a son of a former Kingsman and a turned rebel on the influence of “petty crime”, drugs and alcohol. But all of that will be erased as Eggsy on the course of the movie tries to learn the importance of manner and become a full-blown gentleman just like every other Kingsman has.

‘Kingsman’ was really, really, really good. If there’s a film that defines the word ‘fun’, this is one. It honors the classic spy films, with Samuel L. Jackson doing his best, exaggerated Bond villain. Jackson also comes with a sharp-footed henchwoman whose sole job is to kick-ass. This movie is a throwback to those Bond films, with several nods to the quirky moments of the franchise, and at the same time parodies it.

Colin Firth is the perfect actor for this role. He was great in the movie, and oh boy those action sequences. A key moment of the movie (which for sure will be very controversial soon) involves a massacre at a church; Colin Firth steps in the fight and performed his own stunts in multiple long shots. Another notable actor is Taron Egerton, which I know we’ll see in more films. Egerton knows how to be physically presentable and intensely bad-ass.

Director Matthew Vaughn really knows how to make fun. The ‘Kick-Ass’ movies are outrageously offensive; ‘X-Men: First Class’ is stylish great. ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ is somewhat in the middle—though it’s extremely vulgar, Vaughn’s stylistic and manic approach squeezed the fun out of it—easily making it as the best film this year has to offer so far.

The geek rates it 10/10!

‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ opens February 18 in cinemas and IMAX locally distributed by 20th Century Fox!