5. Kingsman: A Secret Service
In Matthew Vaughn’s second adaptation of a Mark Millar comic, he has once again succeeded in making an ultra-silly, violent and hugely entertaining film. Starting with the death of his father, we see estate teen Eggsy heading on the wrong path in life until he calls on an old favour from a veteran agent (Firth). What ensues are a range of training montages, fight scenes, tons of laughs and a lisping Samuel L Jackson. It is a film nothing short of perfection.
The success of the film is due to the rapport between the cast and the wonderful direction from Vaughn and script from Jane Goldman. It feels as if the film has breathed into life from the comic book pages just as easily as Kick Ass did back in 2010; only this time it’s the spy thriller getting the treatment. Taking various elements from James Bond, Bourne and The Avengers (1961) it’s a spy thriller that hits all the clichés and inverts them spectacularly. There is no over the top love interest for Eggsy, no real damsel in distress etc. Instead we have all the gadgets imaginable combined with a sidekick assassin with blades for legs, an eccentric billionaire villain in a remote cave lair and more action then you can imagine. With snappy dialogue, hilarious one liners and the cutest pug I’ve seen in a while, it’s laugh a minute from start to finish…
Read the rest of Helen Murdoch’s ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review here.
Oh, and see what the Flickering Myth Movie Show panel thought of the movie, too – particuarly that one over ANAL-ised joke – in the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWWtOQOZSTI
Originally published July 13, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
