Kingsman: The Secret Service
Now that I have gone through the majority of this year’s Oscar picks which were left until January to come out in Britain, let’s re-immerse ourselves in some light-hearted violence!
Kingsman: The Secret Service is a comedy spy film from the people who brought us the comedy super-hero series Kick-Ass and is the story of a young man who is taken under the wing of a secret agent played by Colin Firth.
Colin Firth is so awesome he can touch a nice mirror and actually leave it cleaner!
First of all, the positives. This is a very, very cool movie, not just because of a top-form Firth. The action is crisp, fluid and most importantly visible. Watch this back-to-back with a camera-shake heavy film like Taken 3 and you know what we’ve been missing from a lot of recent action movies.
The acting is pretty decent as well. Most of the characters are stereotypes, but that is precisely the point. The whole film is a tribute to the campy and OTT films of yesteryear, while also poking fun at it. So like all great spoofs, it respects and understands the genre it is representing, while also seeing its cliches and foibles.
There are noticeable downsides however. I don’t think it has enough jokes in it. While it does have a few good ones and jabs at old spy movies, a significant part of the movie takes itself seriously (which I suppose is a joke in itself). The dialogue sometimes feels very expository and doesn’t contain the zingers I feel it could have had.
A number of the characters feel like they didn’t have enough time put into them as well. Mild spoiler here, but one character does one helpful thing leading up to the climax of the movie and then spends most of the rest of the time walking about until the end.
And while making cliches is part of the joy of this film, one major one is the base story, young unlikely hero taken up by older mentor and yet no jokes are made of it.
This movie was very much in the vein of Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy, except for its lacking of brilliant dialogue. I suppose though that a compelling comedy which doesn’t try hard enough to make you laugh than a boring, overrated one which tries way too hard (I’m looking at you, Austin Powers!).
There have been a number of spy comedies, among which this is one of the best. However there hasn’t been a great one just yet.
Recommended Scenario: When you’ve grown up and realised that Stormbreaker wasn’t really that good.
If what I have written tells you that you would like this film, you can book tickets to see it at your local Cineworld here. 
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