Kingsman movie review- by Beyond The Trailer

Full text transcript of the Kingsman movie review:

Hello and welcome to my spoiler review for Kingsman, The Secret Service. If you have not yet seen Kingsman the Secret Service, I suggest you click here to watch my non spoiler review and then come back after you’ve seen this brilliant yet I also suspect highly controversial film. Also, as always, there are annotations here so you can skip around the different topics of conversation as you so choose. But and this is new here on Beyond the Trailer. Those same times are also listed in the video description. So those of you watching on your phone can enjoy the same viewing freedom. All right. You’ve been warned it. Spoiler time. Let’s get started. Now, I just said this was a brilliant yet very controversial film. And that’s what we’re going to discuss first, the controversy that I think is not only going to be a big talking point with Kingsman, the Secret Service, but I think we’ll keep some people from enjoying the film, which is too bad, but I can’t blame them because this is controversial stuff and even I don’t know quite how to feel about it. So I can tell you the exact moment that this goes from being a really front runner in terms of blockbusters and just really a superb specimen of a popcorn flick to something that is a little bit more indie and potentially a cult hit only, unfortunately, because, again, this stuff is so off-putting and that moment is the church sequence that the big church action sequence.

Now, I think that Matthew Bourne and Mark Miller have tried to make that this is palatable as possible, saying, well, yes, Colin Firth is activated by this device. Samuel L. Jackson has built the sound waves. Take away your inhibitions and make you incredibly violent. So he’s been unleashed on these innocents. But it’s a hate group, so it’s OK that he kills all of them. It’s not as bad. But I have to say, this is where I found this a little hard to swallow because I think it’s dangerous for any group of people to say it’s OK to kill another group of people. And some of you, I’m sure, will argue, well, they’re a hate group, but I just think it’s a slippery slope. And, you know, that’s why we have due process. That’s why we have justice and that kind of violence to always be a last resort. And I understand that the situation is set up where Harriet Colin Firth character is as much a victim as everyone else. But it’s it’s hard to watch. It’s hard to watch this mass execution, not only because he’s killing innocents, so to speak. Again, they are a hate group, but also because you can’t help but think what the filmmakers are trying to say, that, again, this is a group that it’s OK to exterminate. We don’t have to feel that bad. And, you know, I guess we feel that way when villains are killed.

But it’s such a real world application to this theory. If it’s OK to kill villains, that, again, it’s it’s uncomfortable. So that’s where the movie, I think, totally changed gears. And we’ll see if that sequence is what ultimately brings down this film in terms of being something that’s successful with the mainstream. I think it’s definitely to be a cult hit, as I just said. So that’s the first instance. That’s where it derails. But then there are other elements that are off putting and we’re going to outline them now. The other is, for instance, not only does it say bad things about that, it’s OK to kill hate groups. They also say it’s OK to exterminate the one percent. And again, it’s really a slippery slope to say it’s OK to kill any group of people, even as bad as they might seem. You know, you want to apprehend them and, you know, stop their reign of terror or whatever problems they’re causing. But you don’t want to just execute them, because at the end of the day, how are you any better than that? Right. So when they detonate all the heads of all the one percenters, I mean, who, of course, arguably left everybody else to die, but so but still, you know, again, it’s just you’re just like, whoa, this is such and that again, it operates on two levels.

It’s a very violent sequence to er to watch. But then also there are such real world connotations and commentary going on that you’re like really torn. You’re like, oh, I went from watching a popcorn movie to watching something that is like, you know, a really strong political channel. You can decide which, you know, conservative or liberal, you know, pushing like thoughts and ideas on me. And I’m just trying to enjoy a good movie. And then also on that note, I thought it was not a great idea to loop Obama into all this. I’m sure Obama will hear about this movie and be like, whatever. Do you guys I mean, I thought it was pretty bad. And they insinuated he was making a deal with Samuel Jackson’s character. But I also thought there was some connotation that it was like, hey, brother, brother, help me out. And I was like, you know, I think Barack Obama’s worked very hard to remove race from his presidency. I don’t think it’s great for you to stick that back in there. But then toward the end of the movie, to have Barack Obama’s head explode. Well, you know, maybe, you know, North Korea was right that it’s not so great to explode the heads of your own leaders, but they should also, you know, take heart that we you know, Hollywood does it to itself, I guess, to some degree. Right. We don’t just we don’t just pick on the, you know, the terror states, but we export to the leader, the head of our own leader.

And I just thought that was, you know, not very respectful. I mean, some of you might say, oh, he deserves it, et cetera, et cetera. But again, you might not like Obama, but do you really think he deserves to have his head explode? I mean, it’s just I think it’s too personal and it’s too political. I didn’t like that either. So those are the the two political elements that I didn’t like then. Thank goodness for the after credit sequence, because the end shot of the film of that. Princesses, but before Taryn Edgerton’s character, Excelon Choices reward, that was really hard for me, especially as a female viewer to stomach. I was like, you know, the whole time they were setting up, you know, him getting to have I you know, I don’t even want to discuss it, but a specific type of sex as a reward for saving the world. I was like, well, she did offer it and he did save the world. And this is like a spy movie. And they did this in Bond movies all the time. I kept trying to make excuses of why it was OK. And I think I pretty much got there where I had no problem with it. Then to end the movie on The Shot of a woman’s. But I just think I think it was a poor choice and it just maybe it was a little it was a little off-putting.

You know, I was enjoying the movie so much. And for just a brief moment, I was like, oh, not for me, I guess. OK, all right. Well, I’m glad I got to sit in on your movie. Guys are, you know, people who enjoy women’s butts. Too bad for me. But then as again, I said they had the credit sequence where everything was great and I was able to not have to end on that note. All right. So that’s where I feel the the few potential missteps of the movie exist. Now, I want to move into the other agenda for the film, which I think is very positive and actually has to, I think, really positive elements to it thematically. But let’s go with this other agenda, and that’s up to be a commentary on spy movies today. And there’s a line that’s repeated a few times in the movie, and that’s this is not that kind of movie. And I really like that because I think, again, I’ve talked about this a few times now about the level of realism that’s been injected into Hollywood blockbusters, thanks to Christopher Nolan. And I think this movie kind of takes that next step with spy movies. I know we’ve made so many jokes over the years about how Bond easily gets away and the villains are stupid.

You know, Austin Powers did a great job of being like, oh, you know what? I’m going to just I’m going to just walk away and assume everything’s gone to plan with disposing of the hero and oh, my goodness, he didn’t die. What a what a shocker. What a surprise. And, you know, it’s funny, I just watched John Wick. I mentioned that actually in the non spoiler review as well. But they had many instances like that as well, where the villain did stupid things and did make sure the job was done. So I really appreciate the Kings when the Secret Service address that head on and really tried to create well, on the one hand, a fun, campy spy movie it had that can’t be fun spy organization operating in the real world. And that I really appreciated. I thought killing Harriet was shocking and I didn’t think they would go there. I think Colin Firth is a huge asset to this movie and could have been to the franchise. But I have tremendous respect for them going there because what would actually happen in that situation and I thought the ending you know what? He just killed Samuel Jackson. You know, it was not only because he was the villain, but it was payback for what he did to Harry instead of like, oh, the justice system will take care of you, although I just said it was wrong to kill.

Right. So, you know, again, this is a slippery slope. Maybe he should have just apprehended him. So but I liked that element of creating a realistic application for spy movies that said no. I also like the campiness factor in the film. I thought that the ski chalet sequence in the beginning was just beautiful to look at. The whole movie is beautiful to look at and that’s something that’s missing from a lot of movies today. You know. You know, Alfred Hitchcock is famous for saying, I guess this sums it up best. Alfred Hitchcock is famous for saying cinema is a slice of cake, not a slice of life. And the great thing about Kingsman, the Secret Service is it managed to be a slice of cake and a slice of life. And that’s really impressive. And I really admire the film for that aspect to it. All right. So that’s the not that kind of movie, you know, agenda for it, for the for the film in the spoiler review. Let’s move on to the other thing I liked about it thematically, and that is the aspirational qualities of the film. I touched on this in my non spoiler review, but I just want to talk about it a little more here now that we can discuss spoilers. I really liked that this movie had XY not forgetting where he came from, but wanting to be better, not totally changing who he is, but wanting to improve.

And I thought that the the quote they have here from Oscar Wilde, I believe about, you know, self-improvement or being a better man is just being better than the man that you personally were, you know, not measuring yourself to to other individuals. In short. And I thought that was a really, really important statement to make. And as I said in my non spoiler review, you know, there’s so much discussion these days about self acceptance. It’s the theme of Frozen and let it go, Maleficent, self acceptance, all these movies you accept who you are going to the Galaxy. You know, we’re a bunch of crazy guys. We’re we’re assholes, but we’re not dicks. Right. So I think that that was that that’s something that Hollywood’s really kept. You know, it stumbled upon it. I think audiences have had a tremendous reaction to it. And I think now Hollywood is just hammering that theme home. But I think that what gets lost sometimes there is the importance of self-improvement, that it’s important to accept who you are. But that doesn’t mean you should accept all your flaws and some things that maybe you don’t do right. You should always be looking to be the best version of you that you can be. And I think that that’s it also not to put a limit on yourself, to assume that you can only achieve so much.

And I think that’s what Kingsman The Secret Service really tries to portray, especially with the really great quote at the end for Matt. Yvonne, about his mother, that was really touching. Now I just talked about ending the movie potentially on her, but I much prefer the after credit sequence or during the credit sequence. And that quote from Matthew on that did so much to win me back over to to the movie because it was just so incredibly touching, although to some degree it’s so funny to have these guys have so much respect for their their mother, but then put a shot of a woman’s butt in a movie. It’s like, you know, I want to be respectful of Matthew Vaughn because obviously, you know, he dedicated this film to his mother. But at the same time, it’s just an interesting, you know, conflict of ideologies are just, you know, ways to feel about women. I guess, you know, people think about mothers differently. They do women in general. And I think that something else kind of has to change because I don’t think it benefits mothers or women. But anyway, I like the aspirational qualities that the film overall pushes and the idea that you could be more than you are without without betraying who you are. And I thought that was really great. I haven’t seen that movie in a long time. I think some people felt that it became corny.

But I think this movie does a fantastic job of making it seem very modern and appropriate for today’s age and for today’s people. So I loved that. Love it, love, love loved it. And everyone just looks so well dressed and so awesome. Just made you want to be like a better you, you know, and you can I think you don’t have to do that through money or anything like that. I think the movies obviously shows the displays a tremendous amount of wealth. But, you know, you can be a smart, savvy dresser, especially with a lot of clothing options today. I don’t want anyone to take that away is the message I’m trying to give in this spoiler review. It’s the the basic ideas here, not the, you know, the commercial surface ones that I think are so great in terms of self-improvement. All right. So let’s get to the actors. All right. Colin Firth, you ought to discuss him first, even though he’s not going to stick around for another version of a sequel of this movie, obviously, unless they do a prequel or flashbacks. But he as I said in my non spoiler review, it’s just quite simply a revelation here. He is just such a spectacular job in this movie. I was so incredibly impressed with his ability to portray an action hero and not only to handle the comedic moments of the film, but also, again, as I said, those action sequences, they are incredibly complicated and very detailed in their choreography.

I got the chance to interview him on the red carpet and he talked about that church sequence being one continuous take. So we had to memorize, not only be able to do the moves, but memorize them. And he does. He’s just brilliant. And I meant what I said in my non spoiler review about comparing him to Keanu Reeves, about an actor as an actor who’s that good at implementing the action part of a role. I mean, I was just I was just blown away by his performance. And not only was he good in terms of his action sequences and his acting, but he looked great. He looked really good. He cut such a wonderful figure as Harriet and as a Kingsman. He personified this this ideal, but yet made it seem very human at the same time. I think that it was a really nuanced role and it had so much mystery to it. But yet you felt like you knew him. And it was just it was a gift for Colin Firth. And I think it’s a gift for audiences and it’s a gift for the genre. I really, really enjoyed what he did here. And I think Jack Davenport Davenport, as a side note, did a nice job creating kind of an equal level character who, of course, doesn’t stick around for very long. But, you know, showing there is more than just Harry that it was.

You know, Harry, of course, is supposed to be unique, and I think it is. But, you know, I think the movie does a good job of creating the idea of the Kingsmen, which we’ll discuss momentarily. But Colin Firth, he is the heart, I think. I think he’s the heart of the film, quite frankly. I just think that he it’s a flawless performance. I wish it roles like this would be considered for awards contention because it’s as good as, I think any role he’s ever been nominated for drama. All right. Terence Edgerton, who plays EXI, I think this is a tremendously talented individual and we’re hearing his name a lot in association with other movies. He was up for Cyclops and X-Men Apocalypse. I think after you see this movie, you’ll agree with me that Bryan Singer made a huge mistake not casting him, but also people are saying, OK, maybe you could be Spider-Man, the new Peter Parker. His name is just coming up a lot. And I think it should. I think he’s really good. I think he holds his own here. He’s also able to do a lot of really great action sequences. I mean, I think in the trailer, some of us felt that his face had been superimposed on a stunt double for some really complicated flipping around action sequences. But I think a lot of the time it is him.

And that’s that’s really impressive. And he does, I think, the majority of his own stunts. But he also was able to hold his own acting wise against some really great actors. And he has a lot of on screen charisma. He really pops off the screen, which is unusual with new actors. Often, you know, the ones that stick around are the ones that have that charisma. I think Terrence Edgerton does. He’s just an incredibly talented individual. And I think you’re going to be seeing a lot of things from him. But also for those of you who are cinephiles and don’t always appreciate the blockbuster films, you should be happy. You know, he’s also working very hard to do some smaller films. And for instance, he’s in the upcoming Tom Hardy film where he plays those twin British gangsters. And Taryn Edgerton has a role in that film as well. All right. So next, of course, Samuel L. Jackson, he makes some very distinct choices here. I don’t quite understand why you. To have lisp, I felt that it was a little distracting, but at the end of the day, he made it work because his performance was so strong overall that you just accepted it and went with it. He became a fully realized character, especially when he started talking about Bond villains. And you realize that every Bond villain has a weird quality about them that makes them memorable.

And I think this was the list was one of Sam Jackson’s choices. But he also did a really good job, I think, depicting this individual’s tech empire, creating almost like an evil Steve Jobs. I think he did a great job creating something that you would think would be unthinkable, although some people to hear stories about Steve Jobs maybe isn’t that off the mark. But it was just I think it was a really appropriate for our times villain that Samuel Jackson realized brilliantly. And with the exception of that one bar scene race wasn’t brought into it. There was never a part of the discussion. He never had some thing in his background where he was like, I was never treated well. I came from the street. So I became this billionaire and I want to save the world or, you know, et cetera, et cetera. I’ve turned my back on, you know, where I came from, because now I want to be one of the part of the one percent. This will make me fully accept it. There was none of that which Hollywood usually tries to inject in these type of roles. Sam Jackson was just the villain and he did a great job. And also I love that he had he served McDonald’s. I thought that was so great. And I think it spoke volumes about his character that he really was someone who was into mass culture, you know, big, you know, broad strokes.

And that was evidenced in his food choices. And I thought that was great. It was really, really good. I mean, you could question the product placement. The McDonald’s is the favorite food of a villain, but at the same time, it was a very good product placement. I wished I had a seat at that table. I was like, oh, I’ll take a thanks thanks, Gizelle. And that’s all I’ll speak about next. Gizelle, the henchwoman. Very good. Also, you know, traditional bond fashion has a very distinct physical quality or just general quality overall descriptive quality, I guess you could say. And that, of course, was Gisele’s legs. You know, they have the blades in them. I think they were really well realized. And Jazelle, you know, this actress, Sophia Botella, comes from a dance background and she utilized that really well because obviously she wasn’t actually walking in those shoes, but she was able to create that effect so that when they created the special effect and added that in it was totally 100 percent believable. The character also, though, is an eye candy. She’s very much kind of like a number two to Sam Jackson. And I appreciated that so often when they have female henchwoman, their eye candy or the girlfriend, you know, she’s almost like mercy to Lex Luthor. And I’m talking about like the original mercy. Mercy is evolved a little bit. I think she’s a robot latest the last I saw in the DC Universe.

But I liked that she was a confidant and someone who gave advice, you know, to the villain. And Sophia Bhutto as someone who was a dancer, did a really good job, not just with her action sequences, but also as an actress. She was very, very good, very likable. It’s important for villains to some degree, be likable, obviously, because, you know, you want to have fun watching them. The next the last thing I want to talk about is the Kingsmen organization. I thought it was incredibly well realized, the worldbuilding in this film is spectacular. It really made you feel that this was an organization that had been around for decades. I thought the casting was very well realized. And Michael Caine is their leader. And Mark Strong as Merlin, you know, kind of their cue, the twist with Michael Caine. Deception was very good, not telegraphed a genuine surprise. And I thought the way they resolved that was very good. So the organization was set up to work beautifully, have a very good hierarchy. And also it was just well established in their training grounds. And you talk about the Xavier Institute now you have the Kingsmead mansion where they train. And I thought that, you know, they were able to establish all of this without taking too long or making it seem rushed. That’s a very hard balance to achieve. It was just very well realized and it really did a great job of creating this world and putting you in it.

And I loved all the gadgets that they had. Nothing seemed everything seemed wonderfully far fetched, but at the same time not far fetched. Again, I guess the theme here for Kingsman is that it’s a beautifully balanced movie. It’s able to do all the things that we love out of Hollywood while still taking it in the direction that we want to see with maybe a little more socially conscious, a little more socially responsible and also a little more realistic. And that’s just, I think, really commendable and why this is a special movie. So I loved Kingsman The Secret Service. I’m very, very curious. Now, this is the spoiler review, so we can be very open in the comments, say whatever you like. I think this is a very controversial film and I’m curious to see how you guys feel about it. I know some people haven’t enjoyed it, so I’m very interested to discuss your perspectives on it. And I think this is going to be one of those videos that has a particularly good comment section, although you guys always bring the heat when it comes to the comments section. I have so much fun discussing movies with you. All right. So that’s my spoiler review of Kate in the Secret Service. And you can check out some other episodes right now on.