Kingsman: The Secret Service

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Based on a Mark Miller comic book, Matthew Vaughn does a good job with the story. Wow, this movie is very entertaining. This comic book movie is actually playing tribute to the 60s James Bond movies right down to the suits and music. It is a very fast and amusing movie. For the most part, this movie well-directed with some snappy lines.

There are two stories going on at the same time. One is about a young teen (Taron Egerton ) getting into the Kingsmen group and we get to see their training. The other story involves Colin Firth investigating Samuel Jackson's misdeeds as a villain. Sometimes the these two don't work well together. As stand alone movies, they work on their own.

Speaking of Samuel Jackson, he chose a strange choice for his character that I sort of dug. He has this lisp that make him stand out from his other roles. He is also a 60s James Bond villain with a mixture of Steve Jobs and a member of the Green Party. He's basically taking a grand plan from a James Bond movie and taking it to task. It sort of has a left-view to it with the environment. He wants to destroy society in order to save the world. It is rather twisted.

Sam Jackson's character doesn't like the sight of blood. Plus, he dislikes killing people with his own hands. He's a wimpy guy with some evil plans, which is a fun choice. There are a few issues with the movie though. I really don't believe all the world, military, famous people would be down with the villain's grand plan. However, there is a rather funny payoff to this group of “lucky” people.

There are some really amazing fight scenes that are fun to watch. Each fight scene has this frantic yet stylize energy to it. The scenes are over the top, but that's part of this movie's charm. It is true that the 60s Bond movies don't have these complex fight scenes. I think this is the director being influenced by his X-Men: First Class film. However, this is where the movie really shines.

Speaking of X-Men, the composer from First Class comes back for Vaughn's Kingsmen. Henry Jackman's score is a throwback to the Bond films of the 60s with a touch of  Captain Phillips, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and First Class vibes. It's a very fun score. (By the way he will be writing the score for Captain America: Civil War)

The movie also has a great James Bond villain henchmen character in the form of Sofia Boutella. She is a character with no legs but very sharp blades. Plus, she knows martial arts. She is right up there with the other famous henchmen in the spy genre movies. She is just a great sidekick to Sam Jackson's character.

I also got the sense that this movie went out of its way to be the anti-Wanted movie, but also retaining the same plot points. (A loser kid gets into a secret society of highly trained people.) It even has a tie to threading and clothing like wanted, but it actually takes a step back whereas Wanted was made up of bad people. It would be nice to see Kingsmen and Wanted crossover given the similarities. I think Kingsmen does a better job showing us the secret society than Wanted did in its day. Both movies were based on Mark Millar's works interestingly enough.

While the two story lines don't solidify well that makes much sense, I had a lot of fun watching this movie. Watching a movie that pays tribute to the early bond movies is a treat. It doesn't do everything right, but it was better than I thought it would be. Check the movie out.

Grade: B