This is a movie that came out several weeks ago, but Elyse and I wanted to discuss it, so discuss it we have.
Kingsman is based on the comic book The Secret Service by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar ( A | AB ), and is directed by Matthew Vaughn. Millar and Vaughn worked together before on Kick-Ass, and it shows.
The Kingsman are an international espionage agency that operates at “the highest level of discretion.” They are modeled after the Knights of the Round Table and their code names are the names of Arthur and his knights. Colin Firth is Galahad, and Mark Strong is Merlin, their behind-the-scenes tech guy. He wears elbow patches.
After Lancelot gets himself killed on a mission, all the rest of the Kingsmen are asked to present their candidates for his replacement. Galahad brings Eggsy, a street-smart London kid who is the son of a Kingsman who died when Eggsy was a kid. The rest of the candidates are upper-class Eton types, so we have some class warfare humor happening.
Of course that’s not the real plot, the real plot is Samuel L. Jackson as Evil Steve Jobs trying to fix the world. With his assistant, Gazelle (Sofia Boutella), he puts plans in motion to eradicate all but the chosen few from the planet. Hilarity and an awful lot of bloodshed ensue.
RHG: That was not quite the movie the previews implied. When they said “R” they weren’t kidding.
But it’s got Colin Firth in a bespoke suit, so…. that’s a win. And Mark Strong in ELBOW PATCHES.
Elyse: Okay, first of all, did you recognize Mark Hamill in this because I totally did not.
RHG: NOT AT ALL.
Elyse: So this was not the movie I expected and I don’t think the advertising really sold how R rated this was. That said it was ridiculous and fun, and heads exploding to the 1812 Overture had me laughing hysterically.
RHG: No, no, this movie starts with a guy getting cut in half lengthwise in the first ten minutes, and goes on from there. I know I told a number of people who were thinking about taking kids- it looked from the trailers that this was a teen version of SpyKids, but NOAP. This is not appropriate for kids, and they aren’t kidding about the R.
Elyse: It’s a comic book sort of violence though, for the most part. The whole movie is very over-the-top, comic book spy sort of action and I loved that. I want bulletproof umbrellas and shoe phones and exploding zippo lighters.
I also loved the gentleman spy motif. The Kingsmen are based out of a bespoke tailor’s shop, and there’s something so satisfying about seeing Colin Firth kick ass while impeccably dressed. It reminded me of watching The Avengers (the original, not the awful movie with Sean Connery).
RHG: I finally know what “bespoke” means. I had to look that up after the movie. This has been your shameful confession with Redheadedgirl.
And while I do enjoy the gentleman spy motif, I mean, really white dudes, you could have picked a few more girls and/or kids of color as your candidates. Just one (look, that other girl was a plant, okay) ain’t gonna cut it.
Elyse: I was also confused by the end. SPOILER: Roxy was the only one who passed Kingsman training AND she has a paralyzing fear of heights, but she’s chosen to shoot down the satellite from the chair of doom while Eggsy goes after Valentine.
RHG: Oh you know why that was. Eggsy has a penis and Roxy has a delicate va-jay-jay and can’t possibly do the job. /sarcasm
Elyse: Also I feel like we should warn viewers that there is dog in jeopardy and child in jeopardy in this movie SPOILERS: everyone is fine.
RHG: Welllllll, everyone named is fine. If you think about the climax too much it descends into fridge horror, because you know that there were a lot of children and animals off screen that got killed.
Elyse: I think the highlight of the movie for me was Samuel L Jackson who was just delightfully weird.
RHG: I think Samuel L. Jackson was having the time of his life. I mean, everyone involved was having fun, but Samuel L. Jackson really let the fun flag fly.
And hey! Mark Strong wasn’t the bad guy! That was a delightful twist.
Elyse: Mark Strong was mega-hot in this. So overall what would you give this? I thought it was fun, but the dog in jeopardy and the fact that Roxy totally got benched bugged me. For me it was B-.
RHG: Yeah, a B-. There was so much more they could have done, and the only people of color were the bad guy and his hench-woman, but the performances were all engaging (hell, Colin Firth beating the shit out of like nine guys? AMAZING) and I appreciated the ovaries-to-the-wall-ness of it. It’s done by the same guy who did Kick-Ass, and you can tell.
Kingsman is still in theatres and you can find tickets (US) at Fandango and Moviefone.
I loved this movie more than you did. I thought it was important for Roxy to show that she could face her fear of heights and not let it get in the way of completing the mission (which she did, admirably).
The Valentine character struck me more as Evil Elon Musk (he has a funny accent and is very concerned about global warming). Am I the only one who worries about Musk having his own space program, like Hugo Drax in Moonraker?
Kingsman was definitely R-rated, but anyone who saw Kick Ass should have had a good idea what to expect. I absolutely LOVED Colin Firth kicking ass in a bespoke suit.
I was thoroughly entertained. The fight scenes (in the pub and the church) were choreographed in manners reminiscing good-old Kung Fu movies.
Saw this last week with my mom. I thought it started strong, but went downhill after the church scene. My mom liked it all the way through.
Colin Firth in a suit and Samuel Jackson’s performance were the best parts.
I think your grade is just about right. My husband and I saw it a few weeks ago and quite enjoyed it, even though it was truly over the top by the end. Our favorite scene was the dinner meeting between Colin Firth and Samuel L Jackson. When Gazelle whipped the cover off the serving dish, the whole theater just broke up.
And it was fun to see Mark Strong as a good guy.
I anticipated some of the smaller twists, but the big one kinda took me by surprise.
I also agree with Elinor (above) about why Roxy got the part of the mission she did. I didn’t have any trouble with that.
I also loved the ending.
All in all, not a bad way to pass two hours and a good excuse to eat popcorn.
Any film that has Mark Strong as a hero(for a change) in it was always going to be right up my alley.Plus Matthew Vaughn is one of my favourite directors, & Jane Goldman really knows how to spin a script that had nods to every ATV series that I grew up with … Dangerman, The Champions, The Baron,The Avengers etc.And a bit of equipment robbery from 60’s classic Bond too!
It’s filthy, it’s funny,it’s definitely not for the kiddiwinks … & up to the end, when a spot of puerile male wish fulfilment on the part of Matthew Vaughn, knocked it down from the A+ it should have had, to the B it landed up with,it was brilliant. Even the post credit scenes were fun.
It’s a very adult popcorn pleaser that, for once, I really hope has a sequel.
But Elyse & RHG … how could you NOT recognise Mark Hammill ?
I have it about a C. We’re it not for the suits Id be bored out of my mind.
I loved the crap out of it, except for the big loss. Screws up the sequels for me, if there are any.
Very violent, not for the younger kiddies although I think a lot of teens see similar in video games and other films aimed at them. Extremely stylized violence.
I wouldn’t have minded more of a color spectrum, but that was kinda the point. That the Kingsmen must evolve and move into the future, not rely on the upper class white males of their history. Even having a female in the candidates was probably not a favorite. I didn’t find Roxy to be anything but a fairly well-rounded character. She had a legit fear, but worked her way through it. That’s what real people do.
I agree with the majority in that it was great to see Mark Strong as a good guy for once. Though he does make a smashingly sexy villain.
I loved the various tips of the bowler to a lot of spy series, such as Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Avengers, James Bond, Our Man Flint, etc. I gave it an A, it would’ve been an A+ if it wasn’t for that previously mentioned spoiler withheld loss.
Oh, and forgot to say…I didn’t recognize Mark Hamill either. Had to wait for the credits to see who he was in the film after seeing his name at the beginning.
After we finished watching Kingsman, I told my friend that I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel. In fact, if the sequel is more of Roxy kicking ass with Eggsy as her sidekick I think I’d be in heaven. I agree with you though, I kept expecting Roxy to just randomly show up and help Eggsy out because seriously, he could’ve used the help. But nope. Sad.
@Cate: “… a spot of puerile male wish fulfilment on the part of Matthew Vaughn …” Maybe we’re talking about the same final scene. My reaction ran along the lines of “FFS,” but apparently that’s what I should have expected from this director. Yes, my grade for the film plummeted after that.
KINGSMAN was more fun than I expected, I didn’t recognize Mark Hamill, and loved Mark Strong, as always.
Great review! But please expand your spiler space a bit — with the second spoiler-blanked line, the next paragraph basically 100% reveals the spoiler you blanked.
I thought the film was fun, but B- is a fair grade. Wish they’d have used Roxy more in the finale. Wasn’t surprised by the over the top violence, having seen Kick-Ass. I didn’t actually notice Mark Hamill’s name at the beginning, so was really surprised when I saw who he played in the credits. He was completely unrecognizable, I thought. Sad Jack Davenport wasn’t in the film more. Gentlemen spies in bespoke bullet-proof(!)suits is a wonderful idea.
Two more thoughts–
Yes, the husband and I both recognized Mark Hamill. (I forgot to mention that earlier (#4 above, where, yes, I managed to misspell my name)
And I think Eire (#9 above) is on the right track re: sequels.
I think it was the reviewer in the Washington Post who said each nation has a quality product it’s known for: Germany has cars, France has wine, and England has Colin Firth.
@Darlynne … “FFS!” My thoughts exactly. Matthew Vaughn always leans towards excess, but never quite so blatantly as this. I’d still go to see the (strongly rumoured ..nearly all cast signed up) sequel though 🙂
The movie giveth the Jack Davenport then immediately taketh, and now I want a franchise of JackDav gentleman spy movies STAT.
I was loving it (Firth! Double-breasted suits!) until that nonsense at the end… trading sexual favours for FREEDOM and he brings champagne like its a date?! What?! WHAT?! He left her *locked up* just so that he could collect later… the very opposite of a hero. Every woman was treated decently (even the mother tried to heroically shield her kids from the abusive boyfriend) and there was no gratuitous bare female flesh… and then someone decided a bit of P.O.W. rape was needed to spice things up?
The B- or C rating is about right for this film. It did some things right–it made fun of other movies, mainly spy movies, but there’s a riff on Storm Troopers that was delightful. And I thought most of the female characters were okay for Hollywood.
The things I didn’t like–some of the violence was funny until it just dragged on and on and on. At that point, I started going back for the body count, and I found myself a little taken aback that I was finding death so funny. The one woman, objectionable scene was not so bad for me because she’d given consent, albeit in a situation of duress. I think it was a play on all those distressed princesses, but I could be wrong.
The trailers painted this as more Austin Powers than Kick Ass. And I didn’t make the association until now, so I was a little surprised by the body count.
The puppy theme didn’t get me so much as I had read something similar in a romance that shocked me about two months ago. I was like–sheesh, now the dog gets it. Yesterday, I read another book where the cat died violently. Cute pets are apparently fair game now-a-days.
I was not creeped out by the final scene, because I thought the filmmakers had done a very good job of establishing the princess as a strong woman who was not intimidated by captivity (not only in the initial confrontation with Valentine, but also in the scene when he visits her later and tells her she can get out if she simply agrees to his plan; she says “Never!”). Eggsy somewhat cheekily asked for a simple kiss, to fulfill a childhood working-class fantasy of receiving a kiss from a princess. There was definitely a bit of class tension going on, with the decadent royal upping the ante on the less sophisticated hero. In the first scene between the two, I felt that the princess had most of the agency, even though she was locked up. The final scene was obviously a satire of the ending of every James Bond film, and I never got the impression that her freedom was contingent on sexual favors (and I don’t think she did, either).
On another note, it took me several minutes to recognize Mark Hamill (I hadn’t noticed his name in the opening credits, so it was a surprise).
I enjoyed the movie until the “funny” scene ruined Eggsy for me. A good man DOES NOT accept sexual favors as payment for doing the right thing. If the movie was a bespoke suit, Matthew Vaughn wore it to roll around in pig shit.
I’m sure there are clever and witty ways to comment on the ridiculous and casual misogyny of James Bond. The “funny” thing is so far away from it that they don’t even exist in the same universe.
I really disliked the movie. And not because it was bad, but because the trailer was sooo misleading. It was not a funny Bond spoof! Not even close. That infuriates me!
I thought the lack of color (other than the bad guys) was also terrible but the church scene was terrible and supremely overlong and then we got horrible dog threats and an unfunny final scene that was actually rather vulgar. Disappointment all around.
Technically the in movie reason Roxy can’t go take out Valentine is that they need someone who can pose as Arthur. (They could have probably find a way to do it where she was the main character but yeah.)
Also I was less bothered by the whiteness of the candidates given that the whole idea was that they’re all these rich snobs who need to evolve (as someone mentioned above) and we do see other people of color. Eggsy could have been done as a black working class kid but possibly they were afraid that would make it too much about the racism rather than the classism?
I am all on board for a sequel should it get made.