Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I proudly present the first great film of 2015.
Kingsman: The Secret Service follows Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton), a street hoodlum with a heart of gold who was on his way to making a fine Marine until he flushed it all away to take care of his mom and baby sister. Fate comes a-knocking in the form of Galahad (Colin Firth), who whisks Eggsy away from his simple and unhappy life to begin training for recruitment in an age old spy agency known as The Kingsman. Eggsy's recruitment couldn't have come at a better time, as billionaire tech whiz Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) is about to commence an evil plan to potentially save the Earth by doing away with most of the human population and Eggsy may be the only one able to stop him.
Colin Firth is clearly relishing his role here as one of the top Kingsman agents who acts as recruiter and close friend to Egerton's Eggsy. Firth has his own share of cool action scenes, and one of them that he is the center of is easily one of the most memorable action scenes in years. He is a pretty great, memorable, and bad-ass character (watching him here, it's hard to believe that this man was to be the original voice for Paddington in that bear's newest film). Egerton himself is a fresh face and manages to impress as the hero of our action-adventure. Naturally he has many action scenes to his name and he shines in every one of them. Not only does Egerton potentially have a future career as an action star, he also makes for a likable hero and proves that he is a natural actor. He's definitely got the charm. Mark Strong plays a good guy for a change as The kinsman's tech wizard Merlin, and the super hot Sophie Cookson makes a good impression as fellow spy Roxy. It's also interesting that Mark Hamill makes a very brief appearance here as a British college professor.
Samuel L. Jackson plays the evil villain of our film, Richmond Valentine. Valentine is a lisping, violence-avoidant, hip, techy billionaire who has some very nasty plans up his sleeve for the human population of Earth. The day on which he plans to set his scheme in motion he has dubbed V-Day (like Valentine's Day, ironic considering what his Valentine's Day is to consist of). I relished getting to watch Jackson play against type in a very non-Sam Jackson type role. Every single scene he appears in he easily runs away with. Although he is clearly a very bad guy, I couldn't help but fall jn love with Richmond. Even when he's playing the ultimate non-bad-ass, Samuel Jackson is still all kinds of awesome and this is easily his best recent role, not to mention he easily disappears into his character.
The film is directed by Matthew Vaughn, who also directed Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class. This guy has proven that he knows how to direct action films, and in his hands this film is all kinds of naughty, ultra-violent fun. The film itself also has that signature Vaughn Comic book shine and polish to it (I'd say the film actually looks a little too clean and polished honestly). I would go so far as to say this is likely Vaughn's best film.
Kingsman is a hip new spy film, and it is a bit meta as it openly comments and plays with the way spy films of old worked and functioned. It also can act as a guide on how to be a gentleman, and uses The Knights of The Round Table as inspiration (characters are also codenamed to the characters in Arthurian legend: Michael Caine plays Arthur, Colin Firth plays Galahad, Mark Strong plays Merlin, and Jack Davenport plays Lancelot). The film itself has some of the most memorable action scenes in years, three of which are set to the tunes of Lynrd Skynrd's Free Bird, KC and The Sunshine Band's Give It Up, and a Pomp and Circumstance (The ending of the film is perfect as well, plus there is a scene that deals appropriately with Westboro Baptist). If that alone doesn't get you to sign up for this film, then there is no hope for you. That said, for myself Kingsman was exactly what I was looking for. It's a chaotic, ultra-violent, fun time at your local theater that only gets better as the minutes tick by.
5 STARS
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