Kingsman: The Secret Service
Dir: Matthew Vaughn
2015
*****
Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman: The Secret Service is the perfect merger of the creativeness of the graphic novel and the fun of the Bond films. Based on the idea seen in Mark Millar and Dave Gibbon's comic, Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman tweaked and, dare I say, improved on the story and made it far more film friendly and a hell of a lot more fun. Both Vaughn and Millar are friends and have worked with each other before (Kickass) and the mix of ideas work brilliantly because of their like-minded ideas and also the contrast in each man's medium of choice. Certain aspects of the comic, as great as they are, just wouldn't have worked in the film but a nice compromise was always made. For instance; the beginning of the comic sees Star War's Mark Hamill kidnapped by the story's villain. It would have been odd to incorporate real life people in the film so it was re-written so that a professor with expertise in climate change is kidnapped, making far more sense to the overall story that sees Samuel L. Jackson play an internet start-up billionaire try to cull the human race in order to help the planet. The professor is played by Mark Hamill. The overall idea was to capture the essence of the 1970's Roger Moore Bond films, to bring the fun back to the spy genre but without being a cheap spoof or comedy. It has comedy elements but it's far more clever than that. It's rather neat in the fact it uses the Bond formula but turns it on it's head somewhat. The motives of both the 'good guys' and 'bad guys' are questioned, as are the ethics of any secret organisation proclaiming to be for the good of the public. In this sense it is completely original even though it sticks to a well known formula. It's packed full of amazing action sequences, brilliant performances and witty dialogue. There are a few moments whereby the humour takes a drop into the smutty but these are far and few and very forgivable. I don't think I've enjoyed a Colin Firth performance as much as his as Harry Heart, he and newcomer Taron Egerton are on top form. Samuel L. Jackson is the perfectly modern evil genius, honing both Ernst Stavro Blofeld and some kind of horrible Mark Zuckerberg/Steve Jobs/Sean Parker character, with the intelligence of Bill Gates and the tastes of a 90's rap star (who drinks Vintage Red with a Big Mac meal and wears big baggy tracksuits). Sofia Boutella's Gazelle is better than any Bond-villain henchman in the last twenty years, Mark Strong is perfectly cast as Kingsman trainer and support from high-calibre actors such as Jack Davenport, Michael Caine and of course Mark Hamill, is of the highest quality. The special effects, sets and props are stunning, this and the overall direction and production really do put the recent James Bond films to shame. It is the most fun an action adventure film has been for a very long time, one of the most entertaining films of 2015 by a long way.