Jean-Paul’s Rating: 5/5 stars
Bottom Line: An absolutely ridiculous, rip-roaring, good time of a movie. Some of the best stylized violence to hit the screen since “The Matrix”.
Ok, so a deeply engaging, thought provoking movie this is not. What it is, though, is a romp. It is a perfect blend of absurd, action-packed, comedic, and stylistic. This movie has it all. Ridiculously trained superspies? Check. Over the top supervillan? Check (Thank you Samuel L. Jackson!). Convoluted plot to restore balance to the world? Check. Well choreographed action sequences? Check. Exploding heads? Check. Henchmen dying by the truckload? Check. Completely superfluous Swedish princess? Check. Sidekick with swords for feet? Check.
At its heart, this is a James Bondish superspy movie, but this movie takes the genre beyond the limits of the absurd. Despite, that, the story is pretty good. Besides being crazy, it is self-contained and mostly credulous. Samuel Jackson is hilarious as the lispy multi-billionaire tech genius who wants to solve the world’s global warming problem. Colin Firth is a solid mentor who also happens to kick all sorts of ass. And I mean ALL SORTS OF ASS. It is highly entertaining. Taron Egerton plays a perfect cocky, street smart, recruit as he goes up against the pure-bred, Oxford trained competition that he has to beat in order to join the Kingsman.
This movie can be watched again and again. It did decently at the box office and I hope word of mouth gets out about it so there can be sequels. I’m not sure this magic can be repeated, but I certainly hope they get a chance to try.
Just saw this out of Redbox. Holy Batcrap was this a incredulous but fun movie. Amazingly well done. And its kind of amusing, but if you think about it, Samuel L Jackson character Valentine is actually kind of right. He of course has to go about his plot in the most Super-villany way possible. But I was super entertained. They just green-lit the sequel, so hers hoping for more Swedish princesses.
Ha! We were just talking about this movie and its upcoming sequel over the weekend and how awesome it was. Much of the discussion centered on the Swedish princess and whether her “do it in the asshole” line was misogynistic or empowering.