Colin Firth
Samuel L. Jackson
Mark Strong
Taron Egerton
Michael Caine

Jane Goldman
Matthew Vaughn

129 mins.
Action, Adventure, Comedy
February 13, 2015

Rated R for sequences of strong violence, language and some sexual content. (MPAA)

Matthew Vaughn’s “Kingsman: The Secret Service” shows, once again, that Colin Firth gets it: He knows that, in this kind of film, you just need to deliver the lines. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast, Michael Caine and Mark Strong, notwithstanding, doesn’t follow suit. Taron Egerton, who plays Firth’s protege, needs to pull back. Samuel L. Jackson is a constant distraction. His character’s lisp is unexplained and unnecessary. That’s just one of many examples of the forced humor on display in this film. Much more on that later.

Stylistically, “Kingsman” is “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” meets “James Bond,” if Bond were a celibate librarian played by Colin Firth. It has a fairly obvious plot, but I guess the way they handle death is how they attempt to do something new: In this film, if a character dies, there’s no coming back.

This film relies, way too heavily, on non-sequitur British humor – Austin Powers would approve. The humor’s there solely for the laughs; it’s as if the writers were forced to insert jokes into the script every few minutes. That might’ve been an attempt to copy the comic-book humor of its source material, but you still need to execute it well. That doesn’t happen here. Most of the humor is juvenile; it’s designed to appeal to young guys. There’s a little bit of edge, but most of it’s tame for the Brits. However you slice it, the delivery of the jokes needs to be sharper. Some of them are simply dropped on the audience. You can tell that they thought: Let’s not be too serious. The self-referential humor worked the best, I guess. (“J.B. for James Bond?” “No.” “Jason Bourne?” “No, Jack Bauer.” – an echo of a “My Fair Lady” joke earlier on in the film. Yes, it’s that kind of humor.) At least the ending joke about anal sex really went for it: Will they keep that for theatrical release? 30 minutes of jokes (and of my discussion of the jokes in this review) could’ve been edited out.

Other than Firth, Caine, and Strong, the saving grace is the fight sequences; there’s energy there. Vaughn owes a great debt to “The Matrix.” The purposely chaotic camerawork slows down, every now and then, to focus on certain objects: a hand, a glass of brandy, a gun, a steel blade, etc. The film kicks into gear during those sequences. You can tell that Vaughn was actually interested in delivering on that count; the action shots are beautifully choreographed and filmed. He didn’t seem as interested in making sure that the jokes landed, though. I guess it doesn’t matter much, because many people are so eager to be entertained that they’ll laugh whenever a filmmaker wants them to. With more care, the whole audience could’ve laughed at more jokes, instead of a certain segment of the audience providing most of the laughter. The last joke (again, about anal sex) landed the best. There I go again, harping on the jokes. What’s wrong with me?

Without its periodically distracting silliness, “Kingsman: The Secret Service” could’ve been a cool film. But I guess that all that matters is making money.

Verdict: OK

About: (Source: kingsman)

Based upon the acclaimed comic book and directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick Ass, X-Men: First Class), Kingsman: The Secret Service tells a story of a super-secret spy organization that recruits an unrefined, but promising street kid into the agency’s ultra-competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius.