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I was really pumped to see this as I'm a massive fan of Layer Cake and Kick Ass and someone who was a firm advocate of Vaughan directing Bond but it's just distinctly average.
Didn't seen to have anywhere near the inventiveness of Kick Ass. I was expecting epic set pieces and all we got was the same slo-mo acrobatic fight scene over and over just in different locations. The fabled church scene everyone's been banging on about? Meh. Ok I've seen Colin Firth spin around and shoot someone in the face at point blank range. Are you going to do anything else? No just repeat that relentlessly for 5 minutes. Fantastic.
For a supposed homage to classic over the top Bond there were no great lines, most of the gadgets were straight copies of Bond gadgets and even the only truly exciting sequence, the freefall training, was just a better version of the same scene from QOS.
And the finale? If you're going to copy 60s spy films I wouldn't advise going near CR67 but all I could think of during the stupid cartoon head explosions was Woody Allen burping his way through the casino.
The good things - the blade runner henchwoman (although the final fight was far too ridiculous), Mark Strong, the villain wining and dining the hero with Mcdonalds was a decent gag and I'm struggling to think of much more.
I don't really know how it got such good reviews. Austin Powers hits the mark far better at sending up the genre.
It just goes to show that really nobody can do this style of film better than Roger Moore. If exciting, over the top, tongue in cheek spy fare is what you're after then go for TSWLM or MR.
For all the Bond baiting quotes from industry 'luminaries' such as Alex Zane plastered all over the poster SPECTRE really has nothing to worry about here.
If this was Vaughn's two finger salute to Babs and MGW that they should've hired him then I doubt they are losing much sleep.
Was expecting so much more.
http://www.nu.nl/film/3990390/filmrecensie-kingsman-the-secret-service---matthew-vaughn.html
The last part of the review:
The last sentence I understand a bit. I do think the creators of "Kingsman", Matthew Vaughn at the front, are selling this film perfectly. But to say that this film is a breakthrough? I don't know...
I still need to type my review. I'm slightly more optimistic, but on the whole I agree with you. I can give it max. 3.5 stars out of 5 stars.
I don't think it was meant to "send up" the spy genre. It wasn't a parody like Austin Powers. It was a tribute. A Roger Moore film done in a modern way.
There was less action than I was expecting but what we did get was pretty great. The fight scenes were very fast and brutal, and inventive (loved how they'd seamlessly switch from fist fighting to shooting to using gadgets). The church scene was without a doubt the highlight, have to disagree with you there @TheWizardOfIce. I think there was much more to it than you said. He wasn't just shooting people. He was beating the shit out of them, stabbing them, burning them, people were throwing eachother out of windows, lobbing fire axes into eachothers throats, etc. And they captured the whole thing. No quick cuts, in fact hardly any cuts at all (it was almost one long shot).
My complaint with the exploding heads was that they had the fireworks going off. Cmon. I know it made sense because the villain didn't like blood but is it wrong to want to see proper, LTK esque head exploding ;)? They did make up for it though as there was plenty of proper blood splattering violence in other scenes.
The gadgets being from Bond was the point I think. Despite some members on here thinking Vaugh made the film as an insult to Bond, he'd been saying for ages that this film was a tribute to Bond (and spy movies in general). So he reused gadgets to pay homage. Exploding pen (GE), shoes with poison blade (FRWL), watch dart gun (MR), etc.
I did think some of the jokes fell a bit flat, wasn't as funny as Kick Ass, but then it's not really meant to be a comedy is it and there were some funny bits.
Overall it wasn't quite as good as I thought it'd be but it was still a very entertaining film.
Brilliantly paced, really well shot, with an epic score, great, violent action scenes and loads of brilliant performances. Colin Firth is geuninely badass, Sam Jackson played a great villain and the kid playing Eggsy did a great job and really held his own against a very experienced cast of actors. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him because he has a lot of potential.
Also, they did an amazing job with making the scale epic despite having a limited budget. This film had a third of the budget of SF apparently but it just seems, well, bigger. A lot bigger. Made me wonder what they did with all that money.
SPECTRE will probably be a better film (script was amazing) but I think they'll need to step up their game (especially action wise, compare the fights in Skyfall to the church scene in this) if they want to beat this film in terms of sheer entertainment value.
Sorry mate we'll have to agree to disagree. Its just the same fight as in the pub earlier just with more people and for longer. Entertaining enough but the way people have been bigging it up I was expecting the heist scene in Heat or something. To be honest I was mostly reminded of From Dusk Till Dawn during that scene.
If youre making an homage to the Rog era where were the killer lines? They even made a point of not doing it. Either you are adhering to the formula or youre not. Whats the point in making a stupid, over the top Rog style film and then being all po faced and have the characters say 'but I'm not going to say a funny line after I've killed someone because this isnt that type of film'? Well in all the publicity for the film youve clearly said it is Matthew.
The SF fights werent brillliant but at least werent 90% CGI which the hallowed church scene clearly was. And the fights with Fisher, Obanno and Slate blow this out of the water. Depends what you like I suppose. If its CGI teeth flying across the screen then you cant go wrong here. Dont get me wrong I knew what I was going to get going in so I'm fine with that but I was just disappointed that after the pub scene all we got was the same thing over and over again just longer and in different settings. Where was the gadget car chase? Where was a boat chase? Why have all those planes sitting on that underground runway and the climax is just people fighting in a corridor?
It was fun enough but to think this is anywhere near near challenging Bond as some critics seem to have implied is laughable.
Thats why that guy is a professional film critic and I'm not. Basically sums up everything I've been trying to say in one sentence. Where Kick Ass felt fresh and adventurous this did not.
So while I wish Kingsman had been funnier (like Kick Ass was) I can forgive the lack of naff one liners.
I think the whole bit at the end ("isn't this the part where you make some bad pun?" "nah mate, this ain't that kind of movie") was because the film placed the whole gentleman spy idea in a (sort of) modern real world context, like Kick Ass did with superheroes. The Bond films exist in this universe and are referenced (like superhero films were in Kick Ass), and plus Eggsy wasn't really Roger Moore. In fact he was about as far removed from Roger Moore as you can get. In the end despite all the training, and despite him rocking the suit and everything, he was still the same normal working class kid and it was this that actually helped him trimupth in the end (switching the glasses). So I think that him cracking a one liner at the end would have been a bit out of character.
They could have given some Moore/Brosnan esque one liners to Firth sure, but I'm glad that they didn't have Eggsy crack one at the end, as that would've been out of character imo. The whole "this ain't that kind of movie" exchange fit much better.
And since Firth apparently had to train in martial arts for months so he was ready for the fight scenes, I doubt they were 90% CGI (although there was too much CGI at times for my liking, I agree there). I just found the Kingsman fights better than the Skyfall ones because they seemed much more exciting, kinetic and brutal.
I agree though that there wasn't much variety, and I wish there was a tad more action, but I put that down to the (by blockbuster standards) limited budget more than anything else (about 60 million apparently). Although then the budget for most of the Brosnan era was about that much and they had more variety in the action scenes.
If they do make a Kingsman 2 though then yeah, more variety (good call on a gadget filled car chase) would be cool.
I shytt on "Kingsman, The Secret Service."
Love Martial arts films, and " Kickass" so I was very happy. :D
tell us how you really feel
This kind of spy fare always turns my crank.
Saw the trailer a few weeks back and it didn't look all that special despite the presence of Colin Firth.
I’m a Catholic whore currently enjoying congress out of wedlock with my black Jewish boyfriend who works at a military abortion clinic. Hail Satan, and have a lovely afternoon.
It's worth seeing just to witness Colin Firth saying that line :P
So feast yourself on that one ;-).
Anyway, more reviews are coming in on RottenTomatoes. It has now sunk to 77%. But that can rise again. Also on Metacritic now slightly down: 6.5.
I have no interest in seeing the kingsman movie the trailers looked ok and after a few reviews and being newly married I don't have the time or desire to invest in kingsman
However I hope those that do want to see it enjoy it thoroughly and that it is everything you hope it would be.
With more posts like that we might gentlemen up the internet
I'll probably be seeing this tomorrow. Somewhat disappointed by some of the reviews.
I'm a bit confused, because the trailer definitely, absolutely make this seem like exactly the kind of movie where someone says a more or less clever line after a joke. If the joke itself is that a character won't say a line that seems pretty lame to me. Also @thelivingroyale, it wasn't just Pierce and Sean that said lines after killing someone. George, Sean and Timothy did too.
Huh?? lol... Going with @Sark on this one, extraordinary opinions about yourself are more effective when someone besides yourself has them ;) But no worries, I'm sure they do.
Daniel has quipped after killing too, I believe? "Last rat standing"? I'm trying to think of another... they definitely don't come to me as quickly as the other actors' quips, if they do exist. :P I'll be seeing Kingsman for sure, although I'm not sure if I'll get to the theater to do it.
Some remarks I came across by reading a few reviews:
http://www.redeyechicago.com/entertainment/movies/redeye-kingsman-the-secret-service-review-20150206-story.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-kingsman-secret-service-20150212-column.html
So there's some hope yet for seriousness in spy films ;-).
@Sark I mentioned Moore and Brosnan because they seemed to quip the most frequently. Connery did have some great ones though. Thought it came across as a bit forced when Dalts did it. Craig is good at them though.
This does seem, on paper, like the type of film where they'd make a joke after killing someone but then Kick Ass seems like the type of film where the hero would have some tragic origin story and would actually be able to handle himself in a fight (instead he was stabbed on his first night as a superhero).
While this film isn't as fresh, clever or good as Kick Ass it still has the same basic concept: taking fantasy (superheroes for Kick Ass, suave gadget using 007 esque spies in Kingsman) and placing them in a modern, real world context (superhero comics exist in Kick Ass, the Bond films exist in Kingsman).
There are one or two Bondanian quips actually now I think of it (admittedly none are anywhere near on par with Roger's best) and there are plenty of jokes (not all of them work).
Anyway, it's a good film. Not an amazing film but a very entertaining one. It's a lot of fun, and you don't really get that from movies very often these days (just look at the new Fantastic Four trailer, it's a movie featuring a man with super stretchy limbs ffs, why take it so seriously?).
I think at times this is a bit....well.......not true. Saying that "so many movies miss that fun" and "You don't really get that from movies very often these days" and "Why take it so seriously?"
I think it's just not true. And these comments usually come from people who are only watching a lot of movies from the same genre, that makes them dissatisfied or disappointed. And for disappointment there's one solution: Keep looking for other movies you'll like.
Just an example: Comedy films, like "Ted" or "The Hangover". Enough to laugh there. Simple uncomplicated action movies with a lot of humour? Watch "Red" or "The Expendables". Even the "Furious" films have that. Or simply wait for a good feel-good animated movie, like "The Good Dinosaur" or "Minions". And if you saw "Kingsman", like I did, there are still films that don't try in such a forced way to compare itself with other movies.
Good humour, good entertainment comes from inside, from a positive idea that is translated into a very good screenplay. For me "Kingsman" slightly tried too hard to distance itself from James Bond, by actually throwing in so many references. I personally think "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." trailer already shows how you can be humurous without throwing in so many references from other movies. And usually that also shows the possibilities and eventual longevity of a franchise.
Mind you, this is just my opinion. Because I know people who thought the seriousness in "Skyfall" was forced upon us too much....was trying too hard to be smart. Well maybe, but at least "Skyfall" didn't do this with references to other films.
I think the SPECTRE script is much better. More original story, funnier lines, none of the pretentiousness that plagued SF. I really can't wait for SP because the script was brilliant and it could be one of, if not the, best Bond ever.
The references in Kingsman were the point! Vaugh and Millar made it as a love letter to spy movies. That's part of the appeal and I don't see why that's a problem. It's one of the reasons I wanted to see it.
I know @TheLivingRoyale ;-). These references were exactly the point! I know that. But some like them, others don't. For me it just felt too....ehm...strained. It's just my personal taste. I just prefer references to be...ehm...very mild in nature.
Also, I know SF has plentiful references to previous films. Yes. But they were not so "thick-layered", so "straight in your face" as the ones in Kingsman. For me the movie simply felt....that it wanted to prove itself too much to be something else than serious spy flicks.