Kingsman

In the charming gutter vernacular of its main character, Kingsman: The Secret Service has piss poor timing. With the James Bond franchise riding high on a series of ever more successful adventures, one couldn’t pick a worse time to pronounce 007 a cinematic dinosaur, making way for a new generation of superspies who weren’t born into the profession. And yet the film proved there is room for more than one franchise featuring explosive gadgets, tailored suits and megalomaniacal supervillans, elements that Bond seemed too embarrassed to include in his most recent outings.

One of the gentlemen agents of a super-secret, well-funded apolitical spy organization, Harry (Colin Firth) feels the exclusive club could use a facelift. So when one of his compatriots is assassinated by a quirky internet billionaire named Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), Harry proposes a lower-class kid with potential take his place alongside the other silver spoon candidates. Eggsy (Taron Egerton) also happens to be the son of a fallen Kingsman, but his legacy status doesn’t do him any favors in the audition process, which includes survival training so dangerous that everyone is issued a customized body bag on the first day.

Based on the comic by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons, director Matthew Vaughn, who also adapted Millar’s Kick Ass for the screen, obviously believes that the current crop of spy films has sucked the fun right out of the genre. And he’s got a point. Skyfall was a ridiculously overrated character piece that spent most of its time examining the skeletons in Bond’s closet. Kingsman gets right to the good stuff, luring us in with an origin story that’s as good as any Marvel flick…and often better.

Bulletproof umbrellas, exploding cigarette lighters and electro-shock rings; they’re all on display with “Q”-like enthusiasm and no apologies for style. The film incorporates them into a hyper-violent mission involving mass hysteria spread via cell phones, all part of Valentine’s plan to prep the planet for a clean sweep and put an end to global warming. While the evil plot is pure Ian Fleming, Sam Jackson is an unpredictable casting coup. For a guy who turns up in everything, he brings a little something special to the role, adding an exaggerated lisp and weakness at the sight of blood.

But it’s Colin Firth’s performance that makes or breaks the film. The actor likely relished the action scenes – especially one over the top massacre that stretches to nearly 10 minutes – as a change of pace from his typical love interest roles. But it’s his quite moments that really sell the character and the film. Kingsman could very easily been all bullets and bluster, but there are believable relationships kicking around inside this ridiculously entertaining knock-off. And more than a few lessons the producers of the next Bond film would be wise to pay attention to.

Extras on the Blu-ray + Digital HD combo disc include a comprehensive collection of featurettes that add up to about an hour and a half in length, plus still galleries and a theatrical trailer.