Fish and Cherries Productions

Kingsman: The Secret Service was ridiculously good fun, with an emphasis on “ridiculous.” Everything is too over the top not to enjoy, from the incredibly stylized action to the visual stylistic choices of the effects and designs and ending at the ridiculous lisp that Samuel L. Jackson some how manages to pull off. I can honestly remember just about everything in the movie because it was so distinct. While watching it, I remember thinking that this looked like an amazing comic book movie, but then I saw in the credits that it was a comic book movie based on a piece by Mark Millar (a man that I have a contentious relationship with and will get to at a later date). In fact, the guy who directed this also directed Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, two other comic book movies the embraced stylishness, going over the top, and just being fun in general (Well, maybe not so much Kick-Ass).

Going for an R-rating might turn some people off, but I think it works to the movie’s benefit because it opens the door for a lot of impressive and brutal fight scenes. But it doesn’t go towards grittiness like other films in the genre do and instead delivers some incredibly well choreographed fight scenes enhanced by great cinematography. One of the standout moments is an elaborate fight scene in a hate church that goes on for several minutes, but is done in no more than ten long take shots. There’s plenty of over-the-top violence in it, so it’s as galling as it is cathartic (the church is based on a certain other “religious” group that likes to picket funerals, so it’s hard not to feel some satisfaction). Judging on that, I can surmise that this movie is bound to offend some people’s sensibilities with the type of violence and occasional promiscuity it serves up. But when all is said and done, it’s a dick flick (opposite of chick flick) and as such, it’s bound to have some tropes that manipulate teenage testosterone. Honestly, though, it’s a lot smarter and less insulting than some of the other dick flicks out there. I’d rather watch our main hero get into an amazingly choreographed fight against the kickass villainess with the bladed prosthetic legs than cringe during a fight against a Decepticon displaying its robot testicles any day.

I’d love to gush about this longer, but then this will turn from a Reel Snippet into a full-on essay. I’ll just wrap up by saying that with smart, semi-subversive writing, a great parody sense for spoofing some classic James Bond tropes, and clever characters that I’d love to see more of in cinema today, Kingsman gets two huge blade-prosthetic thumbs up from me.