Adapted from Kick-Ass
collaborator Mark Millar’s comic book, Kingsman:
The Secret Service is the latest offering from director Matthew Vaughn. Veteran
agent Harry Hart (Colin Firth) takes streetwise teenager Eggsy (Taron Egerton)
under his wing as the world is threatened by megalomaniac eco-warrior Valentine
(Samuel L. Jackson).
The characters – whilst enjoyable to be around – are paper-thin
from the offing. Colin Firth fills in the father-figure/gentleman spy role and
Taron Egerton is the charming if predictable child prodigy who we all know will
develop into the hero. Mark Strong is a reliable screen presence (even if his
Scottish accent isn’t) and Samuel L. Jackson gets to deliver the funniest lines
in the film whilst Vaughn proves yet again that he cannot write female
characters to save his life (Eggsy’s pug sidekick appears to have more
screen-time than Sophie Cookson as Roxy).
Where Vaughn really excels is as an action director: unlike
the awkward and heavy set-pieces of an Olivier Megaton project, the fight
sequences in Kingsman are delirious
and erratic yet expertly directed, light on their feet but skull-crackingly
felt. His trademark approach to violence is ever-present and you will chuckle as
much as you wince. The editing is continuously stylish (presented in the
director’s usual golden-yellow colour scheme) and though it tends to beat you
over the head a little with the ‘style’, it never becomes dull even after an outrageously
protracted sequence in a church that pushes the 15 certificate to the very
limit.
Aside from the comic violence, there’s an awful lot of
geezers-versus-poshboys snickering, Bond pastiche and (towards the end) a very
poorly handled sequence of bawdy humour that is increasingly infantile and –
much like the entire plot – will fall apart if you stop and think about it for
more than two seconds. But the film prevents that by simply upping the ante
every five minutes so you’re too busy trying to keep up with the pace to pause
for thought, a problem (if indeed it is a problem) exacerbated by a cracking
soundtrack that begins with Dire Straits’ Money
for Nothing and goes up from there.
Politically bonkers and flimsily written but packed with
inventive gadgets, villains and quips to rival Bond, Kingsman is an entertaining if forgettable action flick whose spell
will be broken the instant you leave the cinema. Despite half the synapses in
your brain screaming at you to stop watching – that it’s riddled with cliché and
the characters are one-dimensional and the whole thing is throwaway nonsense –
you’ll have a lot of fun, and having fun is what Vaughn does best.
★★★☆☆
