8/10

Valentine’s weekend of 2015 had an offering for the women in the form of “Fifty Shades of Grey”. This time, it’s the men’s turn with “The Kingsmen”. Director Matthew Vaughn (X-Men : Days of Futures Past, Kick-Ass) presents his latest opus, as he pays tribute to the spy films of the 60’s and 70’s that many of it’s audience grew up on. “The Kingsmen : Secret Service” lifts it’s story from the best selling comic book of the same name. It follows Eggsy (Taron Egerton), a troublesome early adult male searching for the truth with the loss of his father as a child. His father worked for a super-secret spy organization that recruits Eggsy into the agency’s super competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius (Samuel L Jackson). Eggsy’s protege is a soft spoken battle trained veteran (Colin Firth) who sees potential in the boy. “The Kingsmen” is the most fun i have had in a theater in a very long time. There are movies that are better, but when it comes to a fun, visually pleasing to the eye shoot em up, look no further. You won’t find better. The movie is a roller coaster thrill ride that you never want to get off of. First and above anything else in this film, the action has an art direction that is stylishly choreographed. The fights are slowed down, but i wouldn’t say it’s slow motion. The camera angles instead slow everything down around the fast paced action following our protagonist to show his next move. I found the fight scenes similar to a chess game, in which the player must see his next move coming sixteen moves ahead. On top of this magic touch, the violence is the most brutal i have seen since 2014’s “The Raid : Redemption”. There isn’t a lot of blood in the movie. I like this directing decision because it chooses another route for leaving an impression. Vaughn would instead rather please the audience with heart pounding free falls that speak for themselves. The film pays tribute to a lot of spy films like “Alfie”, “James Bond”, and many others, but it creates a name for it’s own by breaking the very rules that it’s genre created decades ago. There are a couple of twists and turns in the film that i didn’t see coming, and it keeps the film’s structure wonderfully paced during a second hour that may have started to lag without it. Make no mistake though, i never found this movie dull at any point. It’s just nice that not all of it’s secrets were given away in the first hour. On top of the bombshells (which i cannot divulge), the movie casts Eggsy with a female character in his class. Normal film history would tell you that these two will be romantically involved, but i loved the opposite direction it took with them. It’s also nice to see a movie where the villain’s devious plan is executed even when the clock countdown hits zero from The Kingsmen trying to stop it. The cast is truly a pleasure, and cast well in their respective roles. Firth is one of my current favorite actors, and this movie is eye opening when it comes to his action abilities. He did all of his stunts for the film, which is quite incredible when you see how fast paced and crisp the fighting looks. This is only the second film for the young Egerton, but he has a bright future ahead of him. The boy is full of charisma reminiscent of an a veteran actor who has owned his craft for decades. Jackson is hilarious as the lisp mouthed antagonist of the film. With a sharp steel legged female bodyguard in tow, his ridiculousness is reflective of the James Bond villains i grew up with. Everything just works with this movie, and with the exception of some minor sound mixing issues that i had with the shooting scenes, there isn’t anything i can say that i truly didn’t enjoy about this film. “The Kingsmen” is a lone diamond in one of the roughest months of film i have ever dealt with. It’s an over the top pleasure that simply can not be missed by action genre nuts like myself.