A real waste of a talented cast. Reminded me of the worst aspects of the Bond films while exceeding them in awfulness. The anal sex joke at the end was pointless, gross, and of course extremely sexist.
5
I just watched this with my teenaged son and daughter on DVD. He loved it. She and I hated it. That about sums up the appeal, I think.
7
How can this review fail to mention the satirical dimension of this movie? And its astute hypercitationality (Tarantino, Kubrick, spy movies...)? It is a complex, iconoclastic commentary on mainstream culture, social revenge, and revolution. I highly recommend it!
7
My husband and I saw this movie last night and are ashamed that our tickets will be counted to push this terrible movie, full of gratuitous violence, up on the scale of most viewed films. We cringed through that scene in the church. Why didn't we walk out?--my belief and hope that Colin Firth would pull it out of the gutter, even after he was shot in the head (spoiler alert). Don't go see it and don't take your children! Isn't there enough real violence in the world?
12
The church scene was probably the low point of the film (though the anal sex jokes at the end worked overtime to try and top it). I think, however, they were about British disdain for the US (as well as lots of ignorance about it).
They could have set the rampage in an Anglican church, but noooo....no, it has to be in KENTUCKY (very specifically) and a bunch of "redneck hicks" and a preacher using the "N" word. Never mind that Kentucky wasn't even part of the Confederacy. Never mind that there could have been visitors or children in that church who would have been massacred, along with the bigots. Never mind that mass murder doesn't exactly solve the problem of bigotry (it makes martyrs, duh). No -- those correct-thinking Brits have to show off their lefty superiority to awful, religious bigots. So superior in their atheist/agnosticism.
I should add the film also shows Obama (from the back) conspiring with Samuel Jackson's hip hop villain to commit mass genocide....then Obama (along with all kinds of other big shots) having his head explode like a pumpkin at a shooting range. In neon colors.
I wanted to like this, and for about the first half, I did. But it is an exercise in gratuitous, smug, self-congratulatory snarkiness. Afterwards, you feel like taking a shower.
They could have set the rampage in an Anglican church, but noooo....no, it has to be in KENTUCKY (very specifically) and a bunch of "redneck hicks" and a preacher using the "N" word. Never mind that Kentucky wasn't even part of the Confederacy. Never mind that there could have been visitors or children in that church who would have been massacred, along with the bigots. Never mind that mass murder doesn't exactly solve the problem of bigotry (it makes martyrs, duh). No -- those correct-thinking Brits have to show off their lefty superiority to awful, religious bigots. So superior in their atheist/agnosticism.
I should add the film also shows Obama (from the back) conspiring with Samuel Jackson's hip hop villain to commit mass genocide....then Obama (along with all kinds of other big shots) having his head explode like a pumpkin at a shooting range. In neon colors.
I wanted to like this, and for about the first half, I did. But it is an exercise in gratuitous, smug, self-congratulatory snarkiness. Afterwards, you feel like taking a shower.
4
I thought this movie was hilarious and clever, and it exceeded my expectations. You seem to have forgotten this is adapted a from a comic book - I thought the cartoonish interpretation of James Bond-type violence was unique and stylish, with virtually no blood spilled. The characters were drawn just enough over-the-top to suspend any sense of reality. I will highly recommend to those with an appreciation of the absurd.
13
The old Bond films of the 60s were extremely stylized. The violence was suggested, rarely shown. And it was almost always one-on-one with Bond against some villain or the villain's henchman -- it didn't show genocides or mass murders in churches.
If you wanted an example of our general cultural coarsening, you could hardly do better than this film.....where the generic "pretty girl" exists in the plot solely to offer anal sex to the hero, as a reward for "saving the world".
If you wanted an example of our general cultural coarsening, you could hardly do better than this film.....where the generic "pretty girl" exists in the plot solely to offer anal sex to the hero, as a reward for "saving the world".
6
Great story line. Killing and more killing, probably 200 or more killed in the film. I just don't see how qualifies as art.
1
This movie had its good moments, but overall it left me scratching my head. First of all, the Samuel Jackson villain was just weird but not in a good way...not sure what the lisp was about...totally unnecessary. That wasn't the only thing that was unnecessary...the over the top violence in the KY church for example. And the reference to anal sex at the end of the movie really left a bad taste. It wasn't funny or sexy, just weird and out of place.
16
Wow--couldn't disagree more with Manohla on this one. My daughters dragged me to see this yesterday and I was less than enthusiastic about it. But ten minutes in, I realized this was an exceptionally creative tour de force. The Kingsman members are James Bond-type super heroes, with class and exceptional skills. They fight the evil super heroes of the world--in this case a hilariously lisping Samuel L. Jackson and his sexy prosthetic-clad side-kick. The Kingsman are loyal, and this is manifest here by Colin Firth's character taking care of a deceased Kingsman's son who has gotten himself into trouble. The visuals are spectacular, the music groovy, the violence playfullysatisfying. This is James Bond coupled with Quentin Tarantino flash and augmented by Austin Powers whackiness. I was delighted throughout.
The ending raunchy note is so funny I literally was convulsing. I've never seen an R-rated film make a theme of something so naughty, and the way it is delivered here is priceless. Every man left that theater wishing he could save the world!!
Go see this movie, it is a classic and unless you are really sensitive to violence I think you will enjoy it fully.
The ending raunchy note is so funny I literally was convulsing. I've never seen an R-rated film make a theme of something so naughty, and the way it is delivered here is priceless. Every man left that theater wishing he could save the world!!
Go see this movie, it is a classic and unless you are really sensitive to violence I think you will enjoy it fully.
23
I'm not generally sensitive to violence (being a fan of Walking Dead and many violent movies), but this was just so disgustingly, unnecessarily violent and the plot so utterly ridiculous that I walked out half way through.
6
I'm surprised there was no mention of the treatment of Swedish princess character and the "bargaining" that took place between she and Eggsy. The final scene left a sour, sexist taste in my mouth.
25
Exactly. She stood up to the villain and then turns into a woos for the boy?
14
I was enjoying this movie even with the cartoonish violence until the very end, when the gratuitous dirty joke about precisely how a woman would sexually gratify the main character, complete with a flash of her shapely behind, kind of ruined it. I went with my teenaged son (yes, he's under 17, and yes, I knew it was rated R) and that little scene, which was completely unnecessary, was truly offensive. Keeping my comment clean to meet NY Times standards was a challenge. Now I kind of wish I hadn't taken him to see it and I won't be recommending the movie.
17
I don't get you Americans; You're fine with gratuitous violence but draw the line at sex?
7
@DR: it's because the violence is cartoonish and exaggerated, and the victims are either outright evil OR non-entities we don't care about. But we are introduced enough to the Princess to know she's a good person, and wrongly imprisoned by the Villain -- and nothing prepares us for her offering anal sex -- very specifically -- to the hero as if she was a street prostitute with absolutely nothing else to offer. No romance, no kissing, no flirting. Just "here's my rear end".
I don't think anyone would have felt that way, if the two characters had flirted a bit, and the film had ended with them in bed.
I don't think anyone would have felt that way, if the two characters had flirted a bit, and the film had ended with them in bed.
5
Wow, an interesting review and totally different reading of the film from my own. I have to admit, some of the criticisms are fair - particularly the one about the lack of depth for villain 'Gazelle'. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the film and feel that Vaughn, while not always on point, loves more than anything else - to surprise. Here's my review of the film: http://whowhatwhywhenreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/kingsman-secret-serv...
4
I agree with your review, including that the offensive joke at the end ruins the fun of the movie and should have been cut. It was absolutely unnecessary.
5
This movie very well makes my top 10 worst films I have ever seen. I don't mind effective use of violence like it was in Inglorious Basterds. Here, it feels like a 10 year old was left alone and had a score to settle with an abusive parent or something and so lashed out by making this movie. I don't mind risk taking and I should have known that movies released in January February and March are usually dumped on unsuspecting teenagers but I resent that whatever marketing was done was completely misleading. My head hurts from Samuel Jackson's three hour lisp.
14
Boring gore, plodding pace, predictable plot. Yawn.
9
There was a plot?
1
Watch the movie as silly spoof on the spy genre and enjoy the overblown ride with first class actors . The best thing about this film is that it doesn't take itself seriously, nor expect it's viewer to either. I'd give it 3 stars out of 5.
15
This deserved better than a short dismissive review. There is some real creative cleverness in the scenes and script. And as a Bond spoof, it works. I wonder how Ms. Dargis reviewed the overloaded sadistic bloodfests of Tarantino movies, a man who is a darling of liberal film critics.
25
Agreed. I can't remember the last time I heard so much laughter in a movie theater. Or applause at the end of the movie. By far the most fun movie I've seen in a long time.
12
What is a liberal film critic?
15
Vaughn only directed the first Kick-Ass movie, was a producer on the second.
2