Homage to the Spy

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Is it just me or are spy/espionage films getting way to serious? James Bond has lost a little of his sense of humor and Jason Bourne isn’t a guy I would want to have a few drinks with. Now I am not saying that spy movies should go way of Austin Powers (that is a little over the top), but I do think that a little less seriousness. Of course all of this is our fault, we movie goers. We asked for James Bond and all other spy movies to be less campy and more serious because Bond is an assassin and he doesn’t need to have a jetpack! However, that pendulum swung way too far to the left and now Bond is WAY too serious. Where is the happy in-between? Enter: Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons (comic book creators) who published The Secret Service, homage to the classic spy movies that give the spy genre that happy medium. Millar is best known for his hugely successful Kick-Ass series. So when The Secret Service became an underground success, 20^th Century Fox decided to adapt it for film and who better to get to adapt it than the guy who adapted Millar’s Kick-Ass into a box-office success, Matthew Vaughn.

Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton Testament of Youth) has not grown up to what his father might have wanted. Eggsy has gone fatherless for most of his life because of a military mission gone wrong that the government cannot speak of. The one person that does know of what happened to his father, Harry “Galahad” Hart has felt terrible, for he knows what happened to Eggsy’s father, but the only solitude he can offer is aid for whenever Eggsy needs it. When the time comes that Eggsy needs help from Galahad, he is there to bail Eggsy out of jail. Seeing too much potential in Eggsy, Galahad invites Eggsy to join him in his “tailor” shop. Though not an actual tailor shop, Galahad explains to Eggsy that he is a part of a super-secret spy organization known as the Kingsman and that Eggsy’s father was a colleague of Galahad’s. With new information about his father, Eggsy’s decides to honor his father’s memory and apply to become a Kingsman; which is “the most dangerous job interview”. On the other side of the world, a philanthropist named Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson The Avengers) is kidnapping celebrities and dignitaries from all over, while at the same time giving the people of the world free SIM cards to use cellular service and internet for free. The reason of Eggsy’s invitation to test to be a Kingsman is not only because of his father, but the Kingsman lost one of their own tracking one of these kidnapped celebrities. So Galahad must monitor and mentor Eggsy’s progress, but uncover the truth of why Valentine is kidnapping people.

This is a perfect tribute to the classic spy movies. This has the right amount of mystery, spy-gadgets, and humor. There was no campiness or too ridiculous of gadgets. The action scenes were done really well and the film didn’t take itself too seriously. I especially found the latter to be great because of the actors they chose for this film.

Colin Firth (Bridget Jones’ Diary), Michael Caine (The Dark Knight), and Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes) are better known for their serious roles and the stereotypical British stuffiness. The great thing about Firth in this film is his sarcastic moments and witty comments. Firth has awesome delivery with these lines that it makes the comments more hilarious. Strong is splendid in the supporting role of “Merlin”, who is Eggsy’s teacher and a Q-type character. Like Firth, Strong also shows a slight humorous side in the film. I was actually quite impressed with Egerton. Seeing that he hasn’t had much on his resume’, Egerton took command of this starring role and seemed to embrace the opportunity. I just hope he isn’t type cast for this because I see realistic potential in Egerton.

Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class) supplies the world with another great movie. Vaughn is amazing at mixing the action, the comedy, and the emotion in all of his movies. Vaughn is so good at these types of movies that I wish that we would direct all comic book movies sometimes. However, I respect Vaughn and his pickiness when it comes to the movies he directs. Vaughn seems to know the limits of his abilities and tries not to do projects that are too big. That is what I respect about him; know what you can do and not try to overdo it because that is when some movies turn to crap (i.e. Transformers: Age of Extinction).

Kingsman: The Secret Service is a great film to just sit back and enjoy. There is nothing meaningful behind the film, but just the throwback to old spy films. So if lighter-grenades and bulletproof umbrellas are in your realm of spy flicks, then please give Kingsman a watch.

The Verdict: See in Theatres