Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

[Mal12345]

While writing my viewer review at Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) I learned that there was another Kingsman movie that I had never heard of. So over night I downloaded the movie Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) from a top secret source and watched it this morning.

 

[Totenkindly]

Considering the Golden Circle is a blatant sequel and they marketed the shit out of both movies... yeah.

They're both by Matthew Vaughn, who directed the first Kick-Ass movie. Mark Strong who played the villain in Kick-Ass plays Merlin in the Kingsmen movies.

I guess no one discussed it here. I saw it around the time it reached Bluray release.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I hate this movie. I'm not the type to insert political subtext into everything, but this was fascist garbage.

 

[Totenkindly]

I hate this movie. I'm not the type to insert political subtext into everything, but this was fascist garbage.

The first one?

I was kind of indifferent to it. It had a few good action set sequences. Jackson's villain was unique-campy but almost "too affected" / purposefully trying to be weird to stand out. It felt like of too long. Gazelle was interesting I guess, although I liked the first Lancelot and hated how that went. I have trouble remembering the politics of it at this point.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

The first one?

I was kind of indifferent to it. It had a few good action set sequences. Jackson's villain was unique-campy but almost "too affected" / purposefully trying to be weird to stand out. It felt like of too long. Gazelle was interesting I guess, although I liked the first Lancelot and hated how that went. I have trouble remembering the politics of it at this point.

Yeah... the first one. I know it's a dumb action movie, but it struck me as especially awful, even by dumb action movie standards. Let me just say that it anticipated the Trumpenreich.

 

[Mal12345]

Everybody I disagree with is Hitler.

Heh.

At least I was able to find a background story behind it all. But there was an additional clue from one of the characters stating that newer spy movies are boring and that the old James Bond movies were best because of the far-fetched plots and the way they focus on odd weapons such as the shoe knife.

So, is this duology a spoof of James Bond movies or a spoof of James Bond novels? Is it even a spoof? The plots of Kingsman are just a bit more far-fetched than those from the Bond movies. The original Bond movies are spoofs of the novels written by Ian Fleming.

From a website:
"From You Only Live Twice onwards the course was away from the books and towards over-the-top extravaganzas that descended into self-parody in the later Roger Moore movies."

Is Kingsman an attempt at a throwback to the old Bond movies but with more violence and action to satisfy today's easily-bored mentality?

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Everybody I disagree with is Hitler.

Heh.

At least I was able to find a background story behind it all. But there was an additional clue from one of the characters stating that newer spy movies are boring and that the old James Bond movies were best because of the far-fetched plots and they way they focus on odd weapons such as the shoe knife.

I'd rather just watch In Like Flint. That was goofy enough that I didn't really care about the politics, and it seemed like it might have even been part of the joke. Kingsman just substituted extreme violence for wit or kitsch. Much less fun, at best.

 

[Mal12345]

The first one?

I was kind of indifferent to it. It had a few good action set sequences. Jackson's villain was unique-campy but almost "too affected" / purposefully trying to be weird to stand out. It felt like of too long. Gazelle was interesting I guess, although I liked the first Lancelot and hated how that went. I have trouble remembering the politics of it at this point.

It was too long. I did not actually finish watching it. Eggsy and Roxy became members of the spy society. There were some repeated sequences in both movies (e.g., the bar fight, and the room filling up with water). There was a long action sequence where they attempt to stop the bad guy. I was yawning a lot by this time. The bad guys aren't nearly as colorful as Goldfinger and Dr. No. These movies are held together by outlandish action sequences.

 

[Totenkindly]

I'd rather just watch In Like Flint. That was goofy enough that I didn't really care about the politics, and it seemed like it might have even been part of the joke. Kingsman just substituted extreme violence for wit or kitsch. Much less fun, at best.

Heh...ive actually seen the Flint movie....albeit probably 30 years ago.

Yeah, Millar (the comic writer) who wrote Kick Ass and Kingsman (and the Authority and some others) is pretty well known for ultra violence. Like, the Authority was a great book for awhile but damn...some of what goes down in there is nuts. Not a surprise for movie adaptation to have some of that.


The first kick ass movie had some depth to it but the second seemed to be a caricature of itself and the violence seemed more mean. Different director though. I guess they will never finish the trilogy.