Starring: Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Caine, Sophie Cookson, Sofia Boutella
Director: Matthew Vaugn
Genre: spy, action, comedy
Running time: 129 minutes
Now showing at Cinema Magic, Naalya and Cineplex Cinema at The Hub
This movie is the reason Michael Vaughn did not direct X-Men: Days of Future Past hence the “it had better be good” comments from several X-men fans on different comic book fora. For starters, the fact this movie is based on The Secret Service comic book is already one point in its favour. Not to say that fans will like any movie just because it is based on a comic book, but it helps on the interest-metre.
Kingsman: The Secret Service, however, is no usual comic book movie. It is more like a Bond movie, complete with English accents, with a twist. The movie starts with what appears to be a spy mission gone wrong, as an agent is killed. Harry Hart (Firth), another agent who was on the mission is ridden with guilt over this and delivers the agent’s medal of commendation to his young family. He asks the family to call the number of the medal if they ever need anything.
Years later, the dead agent’s son, Eggsy (Egerton), is a teenager who gets in trouble with the law. To get out, he calls the number of the medal. That call, brings Hart back to his life and gets him into the competitive programme that could make him a member of the spy organisation his father was part of –the Kingsmen. What follows are a series of missions with super cool spies and villains, in a bid to save the world –as spies are always doing.
It goes without saying that this plot sounds familiar. If you have watched any of the 007 movies or even the spoofy Johnny English, then you might be quick to think this movie is predictable. In fact, several critics have labelled it so. But it isn’t. It is more exciting, has good doses of homour and it has a cast that makes it worthwhile. We’re talking Firth, Michael Caine and Samuel L. Jackson in the same sentence people, so what’s not to love. Also, the spies are very stylish and this is because of the movie’s partnership with clothing brands to create the Kingsman Label –in fact fans will be able to buy the outfits exactly as they appear in the movie, thanks to said collaboration.