 A super-secret organization recruits an unrefined but promising street kid into the agency's ultra-competitive training program just as a dire global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius. A phenomenal cast, including Academy Award Winners Colin Firth and Michael Caine and Oscar Nominee Samuel L. Jackson, leads this action-packed spy-thriller directed by Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class). Storyline: Based upon the acclaimed comic book and directed by Matthew Vaughn, Kingsman: The Secret Service tells the story of a super-secret spy organization that recruits an unrefined but promising street kid into the agency's ultra-competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius. Written by 20th Century Fox Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, June 5, 2015 -- It didn't take long for the James Bond phenomenon to become an outright craze after the release of Dr. No in 1962 and then (especially) Goldfinger in 1964. Suddenly the media waters were full of properties which were at least tangentially similar to the world of Ian Fleming, featuring top secret espionage agents plying their craft in various exotic locales. Some, like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, were fairly "drab" when compared to Fleming's more florid formulations, while some small screen efforts like Get Smart played things resolutely for laughs. Perhaps because Kingsman: The Secret Service tends to tread a kind of middle ground between homage and parody, it takes a while to find its tonal center, veering rather wildly in its early going between exciting if somewhat rote action sequences and more sly, winking references to spies who have gone before. Based on a graphic novel series (entitled merely The Secret Service) by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons, Kingsman: The Secret Service is something of a scavenger hunt of references for those who either grew up with iconic spies like James Bond or Napoleon Solo, or who came to love them later on either home video or television rebroadcasts. Perhaps because the film begins with a rather disturbing sequence involving a black ops mission gone awry in the Middle East in 1997, one that is played straight and with no winking subtext, Kingsman: The Secret Service's more whimsical tendencies take a while to achieve their foothold. A young secret agent in training loses his life during the 1997 mission, and mission commander Harry Hart (Colin Firth), who goes by the codename Galahad, is obviously distraught about it. He visits the man's widow and young son, offering them a token of sorts and telling them to call the number on the back if they ever need "a favor." Years later, that little boy, now a young man named Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton) does exactly that, using his call as a literal "get out of jail free" card. In the meantime, interstitial scenes detail the kidnapping of a famous climate scientist named James Arnold (Mark Hamill, in one of the many "winks" the film offers—in the original graphic novel, it's Hamill himself who gets kidnapped). Arnold thinks he's been rescued, at least for a moment, by Lancelot (Jack Davenport), one of Galahad's cohorts, but some rather brutal slicing and dicing by a prosthetically enhanced woman named Gazelle (Sofia Boutella) leaves Lancelot literally in shreds. That in turn introduces the archvillain of the piece, a wealthy multibillionaire named Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), who has had Arnold taken for reasons which are not immediately made clear. In the meantime, Eggsy's somewhat dysfunctional home life has also been detailed, though not always with a surplus of logic. In one of the film's oddest elisions, Eggsy's mother, Michelle (Samantha Womack), seems to be a typical upper middle class woman living in modest but comfortable surroundings when Harry visits her after her husband has been killed (when Eggsy is still a little boy). Now, with Eggsy an adult, she has morphed into a decidedly lower class Cockney-esque type with an abusive second husband named Dean (Geoff Bell). Eggsy's attempts to confront his stepfather, who also is a gang member, leads to the travails where Eggsy utilizes the token Harry bestowed upon him all those years earlier. Eggsy is indeed sprung from stir, and Harry is waiting for him on the outside. When the two stop by a neighborhood pub, Dean's gang shows up to exact revenge on Eggsy, at which point Eggsy gets his first look at the "very particular set of skills" (not to mention high-tech gadgetry) that Harry has at his beck and call. Suffice it to say, Dean's gang is not much of a threat by the end of the sequence, and Harry has begun introducing Eggsy to the top secret world of Kingsman, a spy agency like no other. That sets up the central portion of the film, where Eggsy is one of a bunch of new recruits who are in competition to replace the deceased Lancelot at Kingsman. The group includes a bunch of upper crust twits who make fun of Eggsy's lower class roots, but there is a bit of a consolation prize in the form of Roxy (Sophie Cookson), a young woman who takes a shine to the rough and tumble lad. The gaggle of candidates is put through their paces by Kingsman's version of Q, a brogue spouting martinet codenamed Merlin (Mark Strong). Viewing the competition from a discreet distance is the avuncular head of Kingsman, Chester King, codenamed Arthur (Michael Caine). Playing out against all of this is the simultaneously unfolding enigma surrounding Richmond Valentine, a guy who seems intent on "collecting" various world leaders for some nefarious purpose. That dastardly plot ultimately has to do with Valentine's seemingly insanely generous offer to give a free SIM card and cellphone to each and every person in the world. The plot is intentionally ludicrous, leading to what some felt was the film's most objectionable element, a whole scale slaughter in a Westboro Baptist-esque church (a sequence which again tends to undercut the film's comedic sensibilities), but it provides Jackson with the foundation to offer one of the more ridiculously wonderful portrayals he's been able to present recently (his totally bizarre lisping idiolect is one of the film's highlights). Some critics, including my colleague Brian Orndorf, felt that Kingsman: The Secret Service suffered from a disconnect between its setup and ultimate execution (a specifically chosen word, given the rather alarming body count). Brian liked the opening of the film, but was disappointed by the second section. I had almost completely the opposite reaction. I found the opening sequences hard to fathom at times, as the film leapt rather precariously between gritty drama and a more cartoonish ambience. Once director Matthew Vaughn ( Kick-Ass) finally just surrendered to his more gonzo proclivities, letting the film tip over into outright lunacy, I found things tonally much more consistent and the film more enjoyable as a result. Despite a certain imbalance in expression, Kingsman: The Secret Service's breathless pace and often wry references to other spy franchises are typically more than enough to engage and even delight. Bond of course is referenced outright on more than one occasion in the film, but alert viewers will note slightly more subtle allusions to properties like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and even Get Smart dotting the proceedings. A fun interchange between Arthur and Eggsy brings to light the strange concatenation of "JB"s in spy lore: James Bond, Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer. Another famous acronym, EU, may still tend to stand for the European Union (at least for a little while longer, anyway), but Eggsy Unwin may be the latest spy to come in from the cold and spark a craze. Kingsman: The Secret Service takes a while to fully reveal it's in the slightly wry camp, and that means that some viewers may be initially confused by what seems to be a more straightforward spy yarn. Those with a good eye for references to other iconic espionage franchises (on both the large and small screens) will have a field day as Kingsman picks up steam and moves toward a calamitous and more or less absurd climax. (The film certainly wins bonus points for the most unorthodox use of Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance".) Firth, probably not the first person you'd think of as an "action star," acquits himself quite nicely as Harry Hart, but the film belongs mostly to young Taron Egerton as Eggsy and especially Samuel L. Jackson, who instantly becomes one of the most memorable arch-villains in or out of the Bond universe. Technical merits are generally very strong, and the set of supplementary featurettes rather interesting. Recommended. (Based on Comic Book) [CSW] -3.7- Harry Hart: [Quoting Ernest Hemingway] "There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self." This is a very good, star studded comic book actioner. Adapted from the acclaimed comic book, The Secret Service, and the casting is superb with all leads delivering outstanding performances. I particularly liked Roxy, a trainee recruit who befriends Eggsy, and Gazelle, Valentine's amputee henchwoman, fitted with bladed prosthetic legs Cast Notes: Adrian Quinton (Terrorist), Colin Firth (Harry Hart / Galahad), Mark Strong (Merlin), Jonno Davies (Lee), Jack Davenport (Lancelot), Alex Nikolov (Little Eggsy), Samantha Womack (Michelle Unwin), Mark Hamill (Professor Arnold), Velibor Topic (Big Goon), Sofia Boutella (Gazelle), Samuel L. Jackson (Valentine), Michael Caine (Arthur), Taron Egerton (Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin), Geoff Bell (Dean), Jordan Long (Poodle). IMDb Rating (12/10/15): 7.8/10 from 319,643 users IMDb Rating (06/18/15): 7.9/10 from 206,913 users IMDb Rating (05/01/15): 8.1/10 from 112,205 users
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