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#128 - Kingsman: The Secret Service
Matthew Vaughn, 2014
A working-class youth is invited to join a top-secret organisation of spies just as a philanthropic billionaire is launching his own sinister plan.
In a lot of my recent reviews I've been criticising films over what I perceive to be tonal imbalances that are so off-kilter that they can scupper otherwise good films. Kingsman: The Secret Service is especially egregious in that regard with its mission statement being to try to recapture the over-the-top fun that defined classic spy movies under the guise of being an affectionate comic-based parody. Unfortunately, when your movie starts with a helicopter attacking a terrorist compound to the tune of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" and then segues into a heroic character's death within seconds, that doesn't even begin to describe how much Kingsman can't quite seem to make up its mind over how seriously it wants to take itself. That sort of inconsistency bleeds over into the film's events and renders even the film's most supposedly awesome moments questionable at best. Case in point - the scene where
When moments like that aren't making me feel more conflicted than engaged, the rest of the film is too familiar and pedestrian to be engaging. There's a massive training montage dedicated to showing how our protagonist (Taron Egerton) learns how to be a Kingsman, but not even the extreme nature of some of the tests is enough to make for truly effective viewing. Supposedly clever exchanges about the conventions of spy movies also don't make much of a difference considering how, with the occasional exception, this movie's much more interested in playing things predictably straight. There's not even an interesting variation on the whole "hero and villain share two drinks but one is poisoned" bit (you'd think The Princess Bride had thoroughly discredited that type of scene). The action is slick and decently choreographed, but it does eventually start to turn into a blur during the all-too-familiar climatic assault on the villain's home base. Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson get decent turns in as a dapper gentleman spy and mentor to Egerton's character, whereas Jackson does his best to deliver on a wacky subversion of a typical supervillain (pronounced lisp, colourful clothes and inability to stomach violence while simultaneously planning mass murder). Michael Caine collects a paycheck. The new blood does their best with what they've got even if it isn't much (especially Sophie Cookson as another Kingsman candidate, who does seem like her character's potential was a bit wasted).
For all the flashiness of the fight scenes (not going to lie, that scene where Firth single-handedly beats a gang of hooligans in a pub just gave me flashbacks to The World's End instead of amazing me in its own right), this still comes across as a fairly confused attempt at paying homage to the days where spy movies were fun bits of escapism as opposed to dour, grim affairs. It tries to stay edgy through its rough-edged protagonist, self-awareness, ludicrous displays of violence and so forth, but hey, it's not like any of that made Kick-Ass any good. At least this one's got a decent enough illusion of quality that I don't mind it so much...for now.
Matthew Vaughn, 2014
A working-class youth is invited to join a top-secret organisation of spies just as a philanthropic billionaire is launching his own sinister plan.
In a lot of my recent reviews I've been criticising films over what I perceive to be tonal imbalances that are so off-kilter that they can scupper otherwise good films. Kingsman: The Secret Service is especially egregious in that regard with its mission statement being to try to recapture the over-the-top fun that defined classic spy movies under the guise of being an affectionate comic-based parody. Unfortunately, when your movie starts with a helicopter attacking a terrorist compound to the tune of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" and then segues into a heroic character's death within seconds, that doesn't even begin to describe how much Kingsman can't quite seem to make up its mind over how seriously it wants to take itself. That sort of inconsistency bleeds over into the film's events and renders even the film's most supposedly awesome moments questionable at best. Case in point - the scene where
WARNING: "Kingsman: The Secret Service" spoilers below
the villain tests his device for brainwashing people into violence on a Westboro-style hate group while one of the well-trained heroes is present. While the result is an admittedly well-choreographed massacre full of impressive photography and effects work (backed up by the guitar solo from "Free Bird", no less!), it is severely undercut by the knowledge that the only reason it's happening is because it benefits the villain's evil plan and the hero is later revealed to have been extremely disturbed by his savage and murderous actions so it's hard to actually enjoy. Not even the knowledge that the victims were politically incorrect bigots makes it any better.
When moments like that aren't making me feel more conflicted than engaged, the rest of the film is too familiar and pedestrian to be engaging. There's a massive training montage dedicated to showing how our protagonist (Taron Egerton) learns how to be a Kingsman, but not even the extreme nature of some of the tests is enough to make for truly effective viewing. Supposedly clever exchanges about the conventions of spy movies also don't make much of a difference considering how, with the occasional exception, this movie's much more interested in playing things predictably straight. There's not even an interesting variation on the whole "hero and villain share two drinks but one is poisoned" bit (you'd think The Princess Bride had thoroughly discredited that type of scene). The action is slick and decently choreographed, but it does eventually start to turn into a blur during the all-too-familiar climatic assault on the villain's home base. Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson get decent turns in as a dapper gentleman spy and mentor to Egerton's character, whereas Jackson does his best to deliver on a wacky subversion of a typical supervillain (pronounced lisp, colourful clothes and inability to stomach violence while simultaneously planning mass murder). Michael Caine collects a paycheck. The new blood does their best with what they've got even if it isn't much (especially Sophie Cookson as another Kingsman candidate, who does seem like her character's potential was a bit wasted).
For all the flashiness of the fight scenes (not going to lie, that scene where Firth single-handedly beats a gang of hooligans in a pub just gave me flashbacks to The World's End instead of amazing me in its own right), this still comes across as a fairly confused attempt at paying homage to the days where spy movies were fun bits of escapism as opposed to dour, grim affairs. It tries to stay edgy through its rough-edged protagonist, self-awareness, ludicrous displays of violence and so forth, but hey, it's not like any of that made Kick-Ass any good. At least this one's got a decent enough illusion of quality that I don't mind it so much...for now.