What the world doesn’t need now is another James Bond spoof. At least that’s what I thought until I saw the enormously fun, action-filled British spy flick Kingsman: The Secret Service. Actually this is probably less a Bond take-off (ala Austin Powers) than a mixed bag of cinematic flavors that include a multitude of 1960s British spy films combined with a little X-Men and a dash of Kick-Ass and maybe even a little My Fair Lady as the plot revolves around a dashing and buttoned-up super spy (Colin Firth) who takes a young English street tough (Taron Egerton) under his wing and transforms him into a suave agent right before our eyes.
There are all sorts of twists and turns, loads of action, fantastic gadgets and pithy lines (the script is lots of fun), and it never lags for a minute, as I say in my video review above. That might be due to the director, Matthew Vaughn, who also gave us the aforementioned Kick-Ass in addition to X-Men: First Class. He knows his way around this kind of movie and he doesn’t disappoint. And neither does the cast which includes a very fine Firth, a hilarious Samuel L. Jackson who plays the Bond-esque villian (with a lisp), the promising Egerton and of course Michael Caine as head of the super-secret spy organization. How could you do a movie like this without Michael Caine?
Vaughn and Jane Goldman co-wrote the script based on the popular comic book. Producers are Adam Bohling, David Reid and Vaughn. 20th Century Fox is distributing the film made in association with TSG Entertainment and Marv Films.