SOUTH AFRICA'S TV WEBSITE
SIGN IN SEARCH MENU
SOUTH AFRICA'S TV WEBSITE


Get your reviews and insights on everything to do with movies and TV, locally and internationally.

Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service

Written by tha - bang from the blog Movies and Things with Thabang on 19 Feb 2015
Favourite this post





Matthew Vaughn, the dude who produced Guy Ritchie’s classics like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, has carved a little name for himself as writer-director of late. In films like Stardust, Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, Vaughn has shown he's got a sense for story, action and humour. Kingsman: The Secret Service could be his best action /comic book adaptation to date. Let's dig in ...


 
Kingsman is Vaughn adapting another comic book title by Mark Millar, the dude behind superhero satire comic book series Kick-Ass, who created a limited series run for the comic book The Secret Service back in 2012. Like Kick-Ass, Kingsman has the same tongue in cheek bravado to Spy films that Kick-Ass had for superhero movies/comic books.

 

So Kingsman has a dash of the Avengers, not the one with Captain America but the ones with John Steed and Emma Peel. Ralph Fiennes tried to resurrect the 60’s spy action series into a film in the late 90’s but it didn’t win a lot of hearts at the box office.

Kingsman does way better than the Avengers: it borrows, lampoons, questions and at times affirms a lot from the James Bond canon way better, but mostly from the canon pre-Daniel Craig's "serious Bond". So it's like Men In Black meets the Avengers meets the Old school Bond films.
 
Outlandish villainous plots, outlandish action sequences, outlandish gadgets… yes outlandish is the key word. Which is part of the fun. Samuel Jackson is a baddie who's afraid of blood. He has the perfect body guard in Gazelle who has Oscar Pistorius blades, which she uses to decapitate heads and limbs, then there’s the fashion.

 
Whoever thought Colin Firth (aka Mr.Darcy from Bridget Jones Diary) could ever be a Bond like character? Give him a suit, umbrella, some gadgets, a gun and bam! We have Mr.Darcy on steroids. Vaughn takes what has worked in his other movies and amps it up. From the slick clothes, to the humour, to frantic action and exploiting English iconography and insights without letting the story suffer at all. As we follow the young recruits trying to become Kingsman.


 
Although Vaughn tries to make Kingsman progressive with having the lead not being part of the English aristocracy and creating a compelling female competitor for the number one spot in Kingsman. Like the Bond films of old Kingsman has the bitter pill covered with all sorts of sugar. Although they wont admit it, these kind of old school Bond flicks are about showing how cool imperialism is. All covered up in being a gentleman and outlandish plot and plot devices.
 
The whole set-up promotes good old English life. The royal family, the 3 piece suits and all. It’s evident in the transformation of Eggsy our lead character, from a Skhothane to a perfect English gentleman complete with umbrella.

Although the film would like to sell it as just a spy spoof with a little bit of fun, it is, in essence, trying to get us to buy into English culture. Trying to make the products of classism cool and also fosters the idea of good old England, like Team America, are there for our good mmmmmh.



I won’t say Kingsman ain't fun - Samuel L. Jackson is always cool on screen. Also, watch out for one Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker / the Joker from the animated 90's series. The action set pieces are superb, the nerds will love the spy gadgets and there's enough skin to keep everyone happy. So expect to see more of the franchise with time, but I wonder how long Brit people will be able to take the propaganda which is smartly hidden in these type of movies before they start asking this franchise like the James Bond franchise of old, to grow up a little.
 
Rating ***1/2
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
index 
* Junk **Almost bearable ***Now we cooking **** Almost perfect ***** Classic
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
 

Actors in this post: Samuel L. Jackson



8 Comments

Tashi
19 Feb 2015 14:05

Hey Thabang - are you going to see 50 Shades of Grey? Would lurve to know what to think of it.

tha - bang
19 Feb 2015 17:03

nah Tashi ,so not interested rather rewatch basic instinct

wonderlad
23 Feb 2015 13:43

Hi Tha-bang - saw Kingsman this weekend and loved it! most fun I've had in a while. Matthew Vaughn is brilliant as usual. Am a huge fan of the (Gambit/Steed) Avengers - so love the homage to that. Also how coincidental that this was a Valentines release and the villain's name was Valentine. 

Tashi
23 Feb 2015 14:29

>>nah Tashi ,so not interested rather rewatch basic instinct<<

Fair enough.

Thanks Ingenuity - off to read it now ...

Tashi
23 Feb 2015 15:11

 Ha! I particularly like the bit about Christian's lust-expression making him look like he suffers from wind.

Interesting what she says about the lack of feminism in it - I thought it might be the case - they should much rather have made the Christian character a woman instead of a man.


 

Tashi
24 Feb 2015 08:47

Swapped their genders I mean so that Christian was a woman and Anastasia was a man.

tha - bang
26 Feb 2015 13:04

@Ingenuity Matthew Vaughn knows how to bring on the fun


Only TVSA members can reply to this thread. Click here to login or register.






LATEST ARTICLES

"Come Back To Me!" - a mother's plea for her kidnapped son on Telemundo

This new series was produced at Telemundo Center and explores what can happen with love when you have no expectations.


New! Come Back To Me Teasers - April 2024

Hearts collide on Telemundo when Nuria's young son gets kidnapped.


My Brother's Keeper Teasers - April 2024

Series finale! Fakazile comes guns blazing for the Mshengu.


Champions Teasers - April 2024

Family ties get strained as Lebo's star rises, leaving his roots in the shadow of his success.


Anupama Teasers - April 2024

Anupama urges Ankush to have a chat with Romil after catching him watching an adult movie.


Titli Teasers - April 2024

The celebrations commence grandly, yet Titli begins to have doubts about the marriage.


New on TV today: Friday 29 March 2024

There's music and lights in SuperCulture on Channel O and the film Wallflower airs on Fuse TV.


Game of Lies Teasers - April 2024

Series finale! The rescue attempt gets underway before a final reckoning.


Gqeberha: The Empire 2 Teasers - April 2024

The Mxenge Hotel turns into a whodunnit. A gunshot. Murder. In which room and by who?


The Wife 3 Teasers - April 2024

Naledi’s sex tape sees the spotlight again and catches her in the headlights.

LATEST SITE ACTIVITY


More activity at TVSA Central



LATEST SOAPIE TEASERS



LATEST SOAPIE TEASERS




Thabang Phetla loves movies,
he loves TV...
he loves his writing...
if you love movies and tv
you will definitely love
his writing on movies and TV.
signed by Thabang's Mom
 
×
×

You browser doesn't have Flash, Silverlight, Gears, BrowserPlus or HTML5 support.