Kingsman: The Secret Service

Probably the best movie I've seen this year and probably the last few months. This was an incredibly witty and charming movie, which somehow manages to include spectacular action scenes. How could I not like this?

What is Kingsman about? It's about the story of a boy. And a man. And this secret independent intelligence service called the Kingsman, which are all gentleman spies of the highest caliber. To quote a phrase in the movie, they are the 'knights' of the modern day espionage world.

And basically they all dress like this. And sip martinis. They're sort of a throw back to the James Bond movies of yesteryear but with updated kick-ass action scenes; which makes sense because the director also directed Kick-Ass #1. 

To give a short plot summary, the Kingsman are a super secret service, who all take on a codename that represents one of the knights of the round table like Merlin, Arthur, Lancelot, Gallahad etc. The main characters' father used to be a candidate for the Kingsman but gave his life to save one of the Kingsman. 17 years later, the son is recruited to undergo candidate training to be one of the Kingsman after one of their number is murdered by the films villain. And then the typical spy story takes place. It starts off a bit slow because it has to go through the standard 'oh, we have to show just how crappy the protagonists life is so that later on, we can show how much he grows later on. 

Is the plot stereotypical? Yes. So why do I like it so much? Because despite having a very stereotypical plot; in the sense that you probably won't be shocked by anything that happens in the movie, it still manages to execute it very very well. It's basically villain has megalomaniacal plan to change the world as they know it and superspies stop them. It's the quintessential James Bond plot and there are even in-movie meta references with regards to this, with superspy Colin Firth bantering with supervillain Samuel L Jackson about it. 

The action scenes are; to sum it up, awesome. Just like I raved over Captain America 2s action choreography last year, I'll probably rave about Kingsmans this year. They're a great blend of slow-motion, stylish acrobatics and general bad-assedness. In one scene, one single Kingsman basically just decimates an entire building full of people with both gun-kata and normal hand to hand. Yes, there is a fair amount of gun-kata in this movie and frankly, I like that. Gun-kata; which is from Equilibrium the movie, needs to be in more movies. 

Overall, this is a pretty great movie and definitely one that I would high recommend people watch as well. I wish there was some way I could elucidate more about the wittiness of the film but that's one of the things that's easier to portray on screen than it is to put down on paper. You'll just have to take my word for it.