Kingsman: The Secret Service

Based on a comic book, Kingsman: The Secret Service follows Taron Egerton’s Gary Unwin as he’s recruited by Colin Firth’s Harry Hart into a secret spy organization – with the narrative detailing the pair’s eventual efforts at preventing a megalomaniacal madman (Samuel L. Jackson’s Valentine) from executing his predictably diabolical plan. Filmmaker Matthew Vaughn, along with co-screenwriter Jane Goldman, is clearly looking to satirize the various tropes and cliches associated with the James Bond films (and movies of that ilk), and yet Kingsman: The Secret Service has been infused with a decidedly (and palpably) contemporary feel that grows more and more problematic as time progresses. (There is, for example, no overlooking the heavy use of computer-generated effects in the movie’s many, many action sequences, with the majority of such moments drained of their energy by Vaughn’s hyper-kinetic sensibilities.) The ongoing emphasis on Egerton’s rather obnoxious character certainly doesn’t help alleviate Kingsman: The Secret Service‘s mediocre atmosphere, nor does the heavy emphasis on training and planning sequences within the film’s middling midsection. There are, however, a handful of admittedly engaging stretches contained within the movie’s overlong running time, with, for example, a tense meeting between Firth and Jackson’s respective characters standing as a refreshingly low-key highlight. But by the time the aggressively over-the-top (and somewhat endless) climax rolls around, Kingsman: The Secret Service has confirmed its place as a barely-passable big-budget extravaganza that benefits from the efforts of its stellar supporting cast and the inclusion of an impressively unexpected mid-movie twist.

**1/2 out of ****