Reviews & Ratings for
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)

A bit of a disappointment. I spent the first half an hour thinking this film had potential to become one of my favourite spy action flicks, but ended feeling completely the opposite - it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. There were plenty of gems: I loved the Kingsman tailor setup, the focus on exploring the struggles of Eggsy's working class community, the self-aware tributes to spy movies, the clever lines, the elitism of the Kingsman recruits, the wackiness of the villain's character. I even enjoyed the crazy violent humour of people's heads exploding in fireworks and crowds fighting each other to raucous music. There was a lot of uniqueness and edge in this film.

However, there were so many weaknesses that killed the film for me. The premise is a bit weak - an independent spy agency with so few agents, funded by heirless rich people? Seems unlikely. The villain's motives and plans also felt a bit trite. Character development fell through - how are we supposed to believe that a boy who couldn't kill a pug reacts to his mass killing of people by going to have a fun time with a Scandinavian princess, without a hint of shock or self-disgust? The treatment of female characters was awful - we have a weird evil agent without a backstory, Eggsy's dysfunctional mum, a Kings(wo)man who always looks worried, and a Scandinavian princess who starts off noble but at the end behaves in a way that completely contradicts her character. For someone who was portrayed earlier as upright and caring deeply about human lives, the way she behaves at the end is just strange and inconsistent.

The film starts with a heart, but ends as a joke. It felt as though the main point was to produce a 'cool' spy movie, not a 'great' one.

Bonkers, brutal violence in a church.
People's bodies being sliced in every way imaginable.
Reckless, 20-something behaviour.
Dogs being murdered.
Hard-working mothers being possessed to try to kill their own children.
Politicians' heads exploding to classical music.
The president's head exploding.
Sexism galore.

Oh, yes.
I like this.