6.9/10. There’s a clear message in Kingsman, and it’s that the old motifs of the Bond films need to be updated for the twenty-first century. That works in universe, where Galahad (Colin Firth), the film’s embodiment of that old guard, says as much to his organization when it comes time to recruit a new agent. But it also works out of universe, as an implicit criticism of the 007 films and similar spy franchises needing to move away from the tropes of the past and toward something more tailored to the style of today.
On the one hand, that critique takes the form of a move away from the stuffy aristocratic bent there’s been to Bond and his ilk for decades. The film leans heavily into a “slobs vs. snobs” theme early, with a notion that a street smart and resourceful kid will bring something new and different to the table relative to the well-heeled prep school sharks the titular Kingsman usually bring into the organization.
It’s a hoary trope, and one not especially well executed. The film telegraphs early on that Eggsy, the working class, streetwise son of a fallen agent is rough around the edges, but will prove his worth to the Kingsman, with them learning that what he brings can be vital to the organization, and what they offer can be useful to him too. But the way that’s dramatized, with generic snooty foils like a Draco Malfoy-esque prig and hamfisted exchanges on the topic, leave a lot to be desired.
Still, Firth carries the most weight in terms of this aspect of the story, at least when it comes to driving that message home, and as usual, he does so with skill and aplomb. Firth conveys the debt Galahad feels to Eggsy’s father, his brother in arms, and the ways in which his character both sees the unlimited potential of Eggsy as a Kingsman and sees the need to give him a stiff kick in the ass from time to time to move him closer to that goal. More than that, Firth sells the idea that being a gentleman is not about the tuxedo or the martini order or the blueblood upbringing, but rather that it’s a mentality, and approach to the world, that can be embraced and employed regardless of where you come from.
Unfortunately, the times when Firth or the better actors in the piece aren’t on screen hamper things. Kingsman is yet another film in a long line of recent pictures where there’s an interesting idea at the center, some stellar performances from the side and supporting characters in the film, but the whole effort is dragged down by a stale lead. Taron Egerton is decent enough as Eggsy, but the bland character, meant to be given color by his situation and contrast with the white-shoe company he’s pressed into keeping, isn’t quite up to the task of anchoring the film.
But Kingsman’s second critique of the spy genre is aimed in a different direction, and it helps to buoy the film even where Egerton and Eggsy fall flat. That criticism is centered on the Jason Bourne films and the Daniel Craig Bond films, which see the need to update the double-agent film for the new millennium, but respond by taking the genre in a dark and gritty direction, trading the big lasers and world-threatening plots of days past for existential hurt, paranoia, and deconstruction.
Kingsman is an implicit (and occasionally explicit) rebuke of that tack. The film zigs where its counterparts zags, embracing all the bombast and lunacy of the Sean Connery-era films, while translating them into a new century in the form of concerns relevant to people today and new form of colorfulness that fits the kinetic direction movie combat has gone in the fifty years since James Bond debuted on the silver screen.
The greatest symbol of that is the film’s villain, Valentine, played by the inimitable Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson plays the character as Elon Musk by way of Spike Lee, and he is an utter delight. Valentine matches the eccentric Bond villains of old, full of quirks and elaborate plans. His speeches about the threat of climate change, and his unorthodox solution to the problem dovetail nicely into the “haves vs. have nots” spirit of the film and proves both oddly compelling in their assessment and bonkers in their solution. Details like his aversion to blood of any sort and guileless new money approach to fortune and fame add a definite spark to the film.
That said, Valentine (and Galahad for that matter) are often the movie’s conduit for meta-commentary on the genre that gets a little too cute too quickly. Exchanges about wanting to grow up to be a colorful megalomaniac or “this isn’t that kind of movie” or dry cool action movie lines serve the self-aware themes of the film, but come off a little more obvious than clever as realized in Kingsman.
The film does make its hay on the action side of things. The various set-pieces involved in Eggsy’s Survivor-esque challenges to become a Kingsman are well-done, if contrived. One particularly inspired fight scene that allows Colin Firth to get into the action is some lurid but captivating combination of Where’s Waldo design principles and a comic book splash page come to life. And a one-on-one fight between Eggsy and a baddie has all the cartoonish flair and well set-up detail, if somewhat corny detail that immediately sets it apart from the rough and tumble, more realistic, even uglier combat in the modern Bond films.
But it’s not enough to truly make the film something special. Kingsman has the right idea, taking the spy flicks on the 1960s and 1970s, and moving them into the modern day, both by injecting a bit of non-traditional flair to the central figure (though the less-than-inspired xXx films beat it to the punch) and by embracing the more outsized aspects of the genre that the modern incarnation of 007 has mostly abandoned. Still, the movie comes off as a trifle, a brightly-colored, decently fun, self-referential spy outing without nearly as much going on under the hood as the folks behind the scenes would like to think.
It’s enjoyable enough, with a sufficient number of twists to keep things interesting, but despite its attempts to rejuvenate the spy film in a different direction, it rarely rises above that level of fun or excitement.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-01-07T20:37:23Z
6.9/10. There’s a clear message in Kingsman, and it’s that the old motifs of the Bond films need to be updated for the twenty-first century. That works in universe, where Galahad (Colin Firth), the film’s embodiment of that old guard, says as much to his organization when it comes time to recruit a new agent. But it also works out of universe, as an implicit criticism of the 007 films and similar spy franchises needing to move away from the tropes of the past and toward something more tailored to the style of today.
On the one hand, that critique takes the form of a move away from the stuffy aristocratic bent there’s been to Bond and his ilk for decades. The film leans heavily into a “slobs vs. snobs” theme early, with a notion that a street smart and resourceful kid will bring something new and different to the table relative to the well-heeled prep school sharks the titular Kingsman usually bring into the organization.
It’s a hoary trope, and one not especially well executed. The film telegraphs early on that Eggsy, the working class, streetwise son of a fallen agent is rough around the edges, but will prove his worth to the Kingsman, with them learning that what he brings can be vital to the organization, and what they offer can be useful to him too. But the way that’s dramatized, with generic snooty foils like a Draco Malfoy-esque prig and hamfisted exchanges on the topic, leave a lot to be desired.
Still, Firth carries the most weight in terms of this aspect of the story, at least when it comes to driving that message home, and as usual, he does so with skill and aplomb. Firth conveys the debt Galahad feels to Eggsy’s father, his brother in arms, and the ways in which his character both sees the unlimited potential of Eggsy as a Kingsman and sees the need to give him a stiff kick in the ass from time to time to move him closer to that goal. More than that, Firth sells the idea that being a gentleman is not about the tuxedo or the martini order or the blueblood upbringing, but rather that it’s a mentality, and approach to the world, that can be embraced and employed regardless of where you come from.
Unfortunately, the times when Firth or the better actors in the piece aren’t on screen hamper things. Kingsman is yet another film in a long line of recent pictures where there’s an interesting idea at the center, some stellar performances from the side and supporting characters in the film, but the whole effort is dragged down by a stale lead. Taron Egerton is decent enough as Eggsy, but the bland character, meant to be given color by his situation and contrast with the white-shoe company he’s pressed into keeping, isn’t quite up to the task of anchoring the film.
But Kingsman’s second critique of the spy genre is aimed in a different direction, and it helps to buoy the film even where Egerton and Eggsy fall flat. That criticism is centered on the Jason Bourne films and the Daniel Craig Bond films, which see the need to update the double-agent film for the new millennium, but respond by taking the genre in a dark and gritty direction, trading the big lasers and world-threatening plots of days past for existential hurt, paranoia, and deconstruction.
Kingsman is an implicit (and occasionally explicit) rebuke of that tack. The film zigs where its counterparts zags, embracing all the bombast and lunacy of the Sean Connery-era films, while translating them into a new century in the form of concerns relevant to people today and new form of colorfulness that fits the kinetic direction movie combat has gone in the fifty years since James Bond debuted on the silver screen.
The greatest symbol of that is the film’s villain, Valentine, played by the inimitable Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson plays the character as Elon Musk by way of Spike Lee, and he is an utter delight. Valentine matches the eccentric Bond villains of old, full of quirks and elaborate plans. His speeches about the threat of climate change, and his unorthodox solution to the problem dovetail nicely into the “haves vs. have nots” spirit of the film and proves both oddly compelling in their assessment and bonkers in their solution. Details like his aversion to blood of any sort and guileless new money approach to fortune and fame add a definite spark to the film.
That said, Valentine (and Galahad for that matter) are often the movie’s conduit for meta-commentary on the genre that gets a little too cute too quickly. Exchanges about wanting to grow up to be a colorful megalomaniac or “this isn’t that kind of movie” or dry cool action movie lines serve the self-aware themes of the film, but come off a little more obvious than clever as realized in Kingsman.
The film does make its hay on the action side of things. The various set-pieces involved in Eggsy’s Survivor-esque challenges to become a Kingsman are well-done, if contrived. One particularly inspired fight scene that allows Colin Firth to get into the action is some lurid but captivating combination of Where’s Waldo design principles and a comic book splash page come to life. And a one-on-one fight between Eggsy and a baddie has all the cartoonish flair and well set-up detail, if somewhat corny detail that immediately sets it apart from the rough and tumble, more realistic, even uglier combat in the modern Bond films.
But it’s not enough to truly make the film something special. Kingsman has the right idea, taking the spy flicks on the 1960s and 1970s, and moving them into the modern day, both by injecting a bit of non-traditional flair to the central figure (though the less-than-inspired xXx films beat it to the punch) and by embracing the more outsized aspects of the genre that the modern incarnation of 007 has mostly abandoned. Still, the movie comes off as a trifle, a brightly-colored, decently fun, self-referential spy outing without nearly as much going on under the hood as the folks behind the scenes would like to think.
It’s enjoyable enough, with a sufficient number of twists to keep things interesting, but despite its attempts to rejuvenate the spy film in a different direction, it rarely rises above that level of fun or excitement.