Movie review: ‘Kingsman’ transcends spy-movie tribute status
The last lines of dialogue in “Trading Places” has Dan Aykroyd on a small yacht, yelling to Eddie Murphy, lounging on the beach, “Looking good, Billy Ray,” and Murphy yelling back, “Feeling good, Louis.”
Three quarters of the way through “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” Mark Strong looks across a big office space at newcomer Taron Egerton, and quietly, but approvingly says, “Looking good, Eggsy,” to which Egerton replies, “Feeling good, Merlin.”
That’s only one of many blatant, nicely placed nods to other films in Matthew Vaughn’s new film, based on the 2013 graphic novel “The Secret Service,” written by Mark Millar, and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. This is the fifth film Vaughn has directed, after “Layer Cake,” “Stardust,” “Kick-Ass” and “X-Men: First Class.” And in this reviewer’s candid opinion, Vaughn is now five for five.
“Kingsman” is an exciting, violent, funny, action-packed spy movie that freely pays tribute to the likes of James Bond and Jack Bauer — there’s a great Jack Bauer one-liner — but also tosses in all sorts of original ideas along with new ways to look at old ones. So along with a wholly unique car chase, there’s an innovative way to administer a head-butt. Along with a former good guy-turned villain, there’s an athletic henchwoman whose legs are deadly weapons.
This is the story of Eggsy (Egerton), a troubled 20-something troublemaker whose father was killed long ago, and whose mother is in a relationship with an awful fellow who hates Eggsy.
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One day a mysterious, very well-dressed man named Harry Hart (Colin Firth) calls on Eggsy with the news that he owes his life to Eggsy’s father and would like to repay the favor. That favor, much to Eggsy’s initial complete disinterest, is to be taken under Harry’s wing and give a try at becoming a Kingsman, a member of an elite, independent intelligence agency that secretly works behind the scenes of even the British government.
The disinterest is immediately reversed when Eggsy, eyes bugging out, sees what happens when Harry is physically challenged by a bunch of young punks in a bar. Let’s just call this gentleman agent a cool, calm, collected and deadly fighting machine who’s armed with some really cool, very lethal gadgets.
After a few seconds of wondering “Who IS this guy?” Eggsy is onboard, and is brought to Kingsman headquarters, where he joins eight other young recruits, the whole batch of which are to be put through a series of brutal, possibly deadly tests, with only one being chosen as a new member.
Then there’s that villain. His name is Valentine, a brilliant MIT graduate whose plans to combat climate change and, you know, save the world, were long ago scorned by everyone he knew.
What’s a guy to do? You become incredibly wealthy, build up a huge corporation, find an evil henchwoman named Gazelle (Sofia Boutella), whose metal legs make one think of Edward Scissorhands, devise a method of doing what you wanted to do in the first place — even if it’s now going to cost many lives — and, in the case Samuel L. Jackson, add a lisp, a hip-hop attitude, and a bit of good old bad-guy insanity.
There are a couple of ingredients here that could have been tweaked for more impact — a side plot of Valentine “changing the minds” of other good people — or that the film easily could have done without: a sexually gratuitous ending.
But there’s so much more of the film to enjoy: Colin Firth showing that he can play an action hero; dazzling visual effects; a wild, ultra-stylized, rock ’n’ roll-enhanced scene of unrelenting violence in a church full of hate-mongering, right-wing extremists; a plentiful supply of plot twists; and a cameo by a pretty darn unrecognizable Mark Hamill (he plays Professor Arnold). Lest I forget, there’s a nod, even more blatant than the “Trading Places” one, to James Bond, and “From Russia with Love”: a pair of Rosa Klebb shoes.
Some preview audience members have complained that, at just over two hours, this runs a little too long. I disagree. I hope it does well at the box office and that there will be a sequel, so I can have another helping, and so I can see what Matthew Vaughn does next.
Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now.
“KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE,” written by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn; directed by Matthew Vaughn. With Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Samuel L. Jackson and Sofia Boutella. Rated R.