Review of Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) by Albertus A — 24 Oct 2015

Every now and then, a movie comes along that is so much fun that I just can't contain my excitement about it.  This is that movie.  I absolutely LOVED this flick.  It's an action spy movie and a parody of the action-spy movie all the same time.

.. kind of like Bond meets X-men meets Shaun of the Dead (you'll understand when you see it).  And it's colorful in about every sense of the word.  Director Matthew Vaughn's hyper-stylized vision is completely suited for a movie like this.

.. it's both light and dark at the same time.  The story itself is formulaic and quite predictable, you know from the beginning how it's going to end.  But that doesn't matter one bit because WHAT A TRIP it takes you on to get there.

  Vaughn films the action scenes with frenetic energy and gleeful abandon that's impossible not to be mesmerized.  The casting is perfect with the exception of Sam Jackson, whose villain gets old pretty fast.

  But Colin Firth, on the other hand, is fantastic as an action hero... what the hell happened to Mr. Darcy???  Sit down, Liam Neeson, there's a new aging British thespian badass in town.  Newcomer Taron Egerton also turns in a solid performance as the cheeky new recruit and convincingly supplies the heart of the film.

  In addition to the awesome stunts and action sequences, the movie is darkly comic.  The humor in the dialogue is original and clever (if a bit on-the-nose), but it's the situations that are so hilarious.

  One particularly shocking scene would be horrific if it wasn't so funny.   To be honest, some people may be turned off by the dark humor and gloriously graphic (yet almost completely bloodless) violence.

  The only real criticism I can find is that the tone is a little all over the place, and the quality of the special effects seems pretty cheap at times.  But that's small potatoes for a movie that's such solid entertainment from start to finish, and left me feeling so energized.

  "Kingsman" delivers high-octane fight scenes, thrilling action, and a heaping dose of humor.  What's not to love?