Score: **** out of ***** (A-)
Long Story Short: Kingsman is the latest action-comedy comic book adaptation from Matthew Vaughn. The director continues his great work here, combining a 007-like world with the YA trend of youth taking on dangerous worlds. Stars Colin Forth and Samuel L. Jackson provide a rock-solid foundation around which mayhem thrillingly ensues, with high quality in everything from the script to the choreography. Highly recommended.
After a flurry of year-end awards candidates and my own year-end reviews, the need for a little break coincided nicely with a dearth of interesting film releases. Things look set to ramp up again from Hollywood in March, but the rest of February might still be slow. Fortunately, an interesting movie did surface last week. The first few commercials I saw, months ago, showed an almost sci-fi level spy movie - starring the gentlemanly Colin Firth. Intrigued, I kept my eye on this and good scores on Rotten Tomatoes made it a sure thing. Kingman: The Secret Service was directed by Matthew Vaughn and stars Firth, Taron Egerton, and Samuel L. Jackson.
On a dangerous, unpredictable mission in the Middle East, a British secret service unit nabs its target but a team member goes down, sacrificing himself for the others. Agent Hart (Firth) visits the man's family afterward, promising that the Service will take care of them. Almost twenty years later, the fallen agent's son, Eggsy (Egerton), is a listless young man in a broken home. When he gets himself into more trouble than he can handle, sure enough Hart shows up to bail him out. Expressing disappointment in Eggsy's life choices, Hart offers him a chance to do something meaningful with his life: he enters him into a secret competition for an open spot in the Service.
Meanwhile, the Secret Service has had its hands full. One of its top agents fell during a rescue mission, and Hart investigates both his death as well as a series of disappearances of government officials and others around the world. Eggsy must find out if he's suited for this life - if he can repay the Service and the world itself - as he's thrown straight into the storm.
Kingsman has a good, entertaining cast that suits the material well. Young newcomer Taron Egerton (looking much like a younger Ryan Phillippe) plays the lead, a disillusioned youth through whose eyes we are introduced to an extraordinary spy underworld. While he isn't a phenom, Taron certainly has the brash confidence needed for his character, unafraid to work side-by-side with big stars. Not the most riveting of characters, he's still intriguing to watch. Colin Firth does an excellent job in what is not a typical role for him, by any stretch (other than his insistence on manners... before he beats people up). Beyond easily inhabiting the role of suave, 007-like agent, he projects toughness and believability as a (lethal) enforcer. Along with his dry wit, Firth firmly establishes the Bond-like (almost tributary) atmosphere effectively.
Samuel L. Jackson is a most welcome star presence as well, playing the sideways-cap-wearing villain. Almost every time he speaks brings a laugh, with his combination of a direct, no-nonsense attitude, major lisp, and unvillain-like aversions (like blood). Not much for him to work with, but Jackson gets miles out of it. Mark Strong (great in Vaughn's Kick-Ass) is a stern but supportive agent trainer, and Michael Caine plays the wise leader for the millionth time. Not much in the way of female roles; Eggsy's peer in training is a dull (but at least not romantically-motivated) presence, and Jackson's baddie is a deadly blades-for-prosthetics assassin but a blank slate.
Kingsman is a top-rate entry in the fairly recent genre of stylishly violent action-comedies (which the director helped launch - more on that later). These films rely on a few tricky balancing acts: be new, or at least offer a new combination of different genre elements - but remain accessible to the general audience. And offer some crackling violence, but not such that it overwhelms the humor. Kingsman succeeds brilliantly with both of these tasks. There are many cool 007-type elements (from gadgets to headquarters), but it's also fused with a sort of YA-like coming of age for youth in difficult circumstances. The script wisely - and effectively - keeps these mostly separate in the plot until the final act. There is plenty of action and violence (though not overkill - pun intended), and each set is unique in both choreography and rationale (the showcase scene -in a hate group church- somehow manages to be both horrific and hilarious). Most of the humor flows organically through the unique combination of genre elements, though both Firth and Jackson are excellent individually.
***
When the credits came up at the end of this film, I was unsurprised (though I didn't explicitly know it beforehand) to find Matthew Vaughn as the director. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors in Hollywood by so effectively coupling action and comedy in really strong films - from the bizarre Stardust to a new take on the superhero blockbuster with X-Men First Class to the groundbreaking (and polarizing) classic Kick-Ass. Kingsman is more of Vaughn in top form, in a film that likely has wider appeal than his previous films. It could have been edited down a bit, particularly at the end, and I would have loved to have seen a great Eggsy, when the one we get is merely good. But there's really not much else I would say against this one. Quite simply it's a huge amount of fun - at least to my tastes - and the writing, acting, choreography, etc. is at worst solid and at best brilliant. Of course, the violence level isn't for everyone, but if you can take it (or even enjoy a little fictional blood shed now and then), this is a great way to escape the midwinter doldrums.
"Kingsman: The Secret Service poster". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsman:_The_Secret_Service#mediaviewer/File:Kingsman_The_Secret_Service_poster.jpg
