*Originally written June 9th, 2017*
"Manners maketh a man"
Kingsman: The Secret Service is the most enjoyable film that is likely to come out this year. It's Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class and the best of James Bond thrown into a blender and the results are one of the best entries in the spy genre in a long damn time.
After a botched mission ends with one of the 'Kingsman' agents dying, Colin Firth feels guilty and gives the widow of the agent a one time favour which is used after her son Eggsy is all grown up and a low level hoodlum. The favour is used to get Eggsy out of prison and Colin Firth's Harry hart sees potential in Eggsy to be a Kingsman agent, so he enters him in the recruitment programme as there is an open vacancy because Valentine (Samuel L Jackson) murders one of their agents.
Samuel L Jackson's villain Valentine is the best Bond villain that never was, a billionaire philanthropist with plans to wipe out most of the human race and start the world a-new as he sees humanity as a cancer to the Earth, destroying it with pollution. He's not wrong.
The center of the story is the "street meets the elite" dynamic of Eggsy trying to fit in with the upper class gentlemen who are unbelievably smug while he does his training. Newcomer Taron Egerton is excellent as the lead and provides a surprising heart for the film.
But the real person who steals the show is Colin Firth in a role like nothing he's done before. He plays it suave and insanely bad-ass. I'd never thought that Colin Firth would star in not only the action scene of the year but one of the best action scenes ever with the infamous 'Church Scene', Which displays Firth's amazing physical abilities and Matthew Vaughn's incredibly vivid and kinetic directing that packs a punch that action films are sadly lacking today. Seriously, the Church Scene is one of the craziest things you'll ever see in a film. I read there is a 7-minute cut of it out there somewhere too, so I hope that sees the light of day eventually. Sadly, the Kick-Ass deleted scenes never surfaced, so I highly doubt it.
The best way to describe Kingsman is what Kick-Ass did to superhero films, this did to the James Bond/Spy genre. It carries the heart and shocking violence of Kick-Ass, but has the intrigue and self-awareness to not be a spoof, but rather a homage to the genres, a perfect balance, which is what Kick-Ass 2 sadly lacked. Thankfully the directing and writing team of Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman prove to be a winning combination again. I very much hope they are both back for the recently announced 'Kingsman 2', because I really don't want another Kick-Ass 2 on my hands.
So yeah, Kingsman: The Secret Service is likely to be the most fun you'll have with a film all year. So buy the Blu-ray, which is out now.
10/10 Dans
Kingsman: The Secret Service is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD now in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
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