Kingsman: The Secret Service

Ah, the life of being a gentleman spy. Cool cars, cool gadgets, lovely women, what's not to like about this awesome job? Well, this movie doesn't have any cool cars, but makes up the difference in the other two departments. What movie am I talking about? Kingsman: The Secret Service of course. This spy thriller makes a name for it's own, doing some things different than other spy flicks. Directed by Matthew Vaughn (also directed X-Men: First Class) this movie stars: Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson and Micheal Cain.

Looks like my closet.

The Plot:
Galahad (played by Firth) is training some potential Kingsman agents. When one sacrifices himself for the team, Galahad feels guilty and offers to help the dead man's family in any way. 17 years later, a professor (played by Mark Hamill) is kidnapped by billionaire Richard Valentine (Jackson). This alerts the Kingsman to go into action, but Lancelot (another agent) is killed in the process. This death leads to the other Kingsman agents to pick a suitable candidate for Kingsman training. Galahad runs into Eggsy, the son of the agent who sacrificed himself. Eggsy, a lowlife who lives with his mom, shows potential to be Kingsman material and is taken off to train. During the training, it is revealed Valentine is kidnapping politicians, royalty, musicians, etc for something big. Those not kidnapped, appear to be working with him for unknown reasons. Eggsy trains hard and ends up being one of the top 3 in his class, impressing everyone. Galahad pretends to be a billionaire to get Valentine's attention to find out more info, but instead gets Valentine's attention in the wrong way. Eggsy fails his last test and is kicked out of the Kingsman. Heading back home, he almost ends up in trouble, but Galahad intervenes.  Galahad is angry, but says he'll make things right after he gets called in for a mission. The mission quite possibly has one of the best fight sequences ever, and it's jaw droppingly awesome. However, Galahad is killed in the line of duty, Eggsy goes out to finish what he started. Valentine's plan is to wipe out humanity by using a SIM card that makes people become killers. Eggsy teams up with Merlin (the Q of Kingsman) and Lancelot (the student who passed) and goes to take down Valentine.

The Good:
Surprisingly, the plot's pretty good. It's silly and knows it is, and plays well on that. There's a few times where the actors make jokes about the cheesy Bond films and the movie does the opposite of what you'd expect. The actors do their roles pretty well, too. Firth is awesome as Galahad and he's fun to watch. Taron Egerton (Eggsy) does a decent job as well, watching him as a lowlife becoming an kick butt agent is entertaining. The fight scenes are well choreographed, though totally unrealistic at times, but still fun. And the scene where I mentioned Galahad fighting....well, let's say Jurassic World's got a contender for best fight. Overall, fun movie to watch.

The Bad:
The amount of swear words. Don't get me wrong, swearing is fine and all, but too much of it makes you come off as an idiot. There are better words to complete your sentences than cussing. The part where Galahad plays a billionaire to get Valentine's attention is a sin. They're at dinner and Valentine's vast amount of money to feed his guest is...McDonald's? Seriously? If I were his guest, I'd be peeved. Dude, you're a billionaire and you serve your guests $5 Big Macs? The hell? Mark Hamill's performance. While I like Mark, his British accent could use some work. Half the time it sounded like the Joker had moved to London and was mocking the people there. It was..not the best. There's also several times during the training scenes where they trick the students to make them adapt to certain situations. Each time, it turns out to be a lie, yet none of the students figure this out. It's a bit frustrating to see these people get the wool pulled over their eyes and none manage to figure out that there was no danger in the first place. Now, the movie itself. There were times where the soundtrack sounded identical to X-Men: First Class, so I got confused and forgot which movie I was watching. Couldn't they have made the music less like X-Men? Even some of the shots and fade aways were the same! Come on! It's like the movie was telling me, "Hey! This is the same guy who directed that good X-Men movie!" Yes, congratulations Matt Vaughn, I don't care, makeyour movie somewhat different!

Overall:
Kingsman: The Secret Service is a good movie. I like that it's clever to poke fun at old spy movies and yet do something different with it. As I said before, the plot's pretty decent and the actors do their roles well. I think it could have been better if I wasn't constantly reminded about X-Men: First Class.  
Bonus Round!

Merlin. This guy is awesome. He's like Q from James Bond, if Q could fly planes and shoot guns.

Rating:
4 umbrella guns out of 5.