Dearest Blog, yesterday it was off to the cinema for a picture totally worth braving the elements: Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.
A young man headed down the wrong path is recruited as an international super-secret agent.
Dear reader(s), to say I was eagerly anticipating Kingsman: The Secret Service would be the grossest of understatements. In fact, I bought tickets, sight unseen, to watch it back to back, a feat previously achieved only by movies featuring a certain caped crusader. I am pleased to report the film does not disappoint.
Kingsman: The Secret Service is a comic-book movie for grownups. It's fun and funny and crass at times, but it's got a mature feel that has more to do with adult themes than with the film's f-word fueled R rating.
Kingsman features end-to-end action, including brilliantly-choreographed fight scenes, some terrific stunt driving, and even a bit of gymnastics, but it's never in a hurry just to jump from fight to fight, chase to chase; there's a STORY here.
The clever inclusion of just the right tunes in just the right places--tunes most of us likely never would have thought to put in said places--is the best I've seen outside an Edgar Wright picture. Colin Firth is a debonair gentleman spy; in fact, he makes it hard to imagine anyone else ever could have inhabited the film's leading role. Relative newcomer Taron Edgerton seems bound for superstardom if this turn as a smart, cocky ne'er-do-well turned secret agent is any indication.
The supporting cast is uniformly stellar, and, if I had one teensy complaint about this near-perfect movie, it's that I sure would have liked to see more Jack Davenport.
Kingsman: The Secret Service clocks in at 129 minutes and is rated R for "sequences of strong violence, language, and some sexual content."
As a wise friend predicted, of a possible nine Weasleys, Kingsman: The Secret Service gets all nine.
It's a smart, funny, self-aware spy thriller that proves pushing the envelope has legitimate value and doesn't have to be just to shock.
Until next time...
50 Shades of Who Cares...this is how to be smokin' hot in a suit and tie!
