KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE (Rated R)
Think of the great secret agents James Bond, Jason Bourne, Jack Bauer, Napoleon Solo, and then throw in Chloe Grace Moretz’s Hit-Girl from the “Kick-Ass” films for good measure, and you’ll have a good idea of Colin Firth’s role models for his super-suave, cool spy Harry Hart in “Kingsman: The Secret Service.”
To help keep matters in perspective for a new action thriller that dispenses a real kick, the directorial duties performed by Matthew Vaughn in the original “Kick-Ass” is a true progenitor for his work in “Kingsman,” which also appears very much to take great pleasure in rendering the hero valiant and brave in an oddly cartoonish way.
The film’s prologue involves an agent named Lancelot (Jack Davenport) being killed in the snowy mountaintop lair (shades of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”) of a super-villain whose henchwoman wields lethal legs (shades of Rosa Klebb in “From Russia With Love”).
Barely a few minutes in and the James Bond allusions abound, with many more to come.
Jump forward to the present day 17 years later, and Harry Hart still shoulders the blame for the unfortunate death of Lancelot, whose grown son, Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Taron Egerton), is a street kid with no prospects as he spends his time hanging out with local thugs at a London pub and caring for his drug-addicted mother.
Hart, often going by the code name of Galahad, resolves to honor the memory of his colleague by recruiting Eggsy into the Secret Service.
For this plan to work, Eggsy will have to compete with upper-crust university graduates for a spot within the Kingsman organization.
The training program is rigorous and fraught with dangerous exercises. The other recruits are mostly dispensable, with the exception of the resourceful Roxy (Sophie Cookson), the only person who befriends the outsider Eggsy, who manages to succeed with street-smarts where pedigree proves to be insufficient to the task.
A nice touch to suggest the stylish nature of this action thriller is that the top secret British spy agency is housed in a Savile Row haberdashery named “Kingsman,” which has the secret passageways, hidden rooms and underground tunnels that recall the central headquarters for “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” or maybe even “Get Smart.”
I almost forgot about Austin Powers being in the mix. The Dr. Evil-type role is played to the hilt by a lisping Samuel L. Jackson’s eccentric billionaire Richmond Valentine, an environmental wacko and tech genius with an insidious plan to drastically curb overpopulation and deal with climate change by giving away free cell phones that would trigger the users to commit violent acts.
Valentine is a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur. His dirty work is carried out by Gazelle (Sofia Boutella), whose prosthetic legs turn into sharp blades that dismember victims like a hot knife through butter. That Valentine is a nut job weirdo is proven by the fact that he wears Google Glasses and a variety of Yankees baseball caps.
Meanwhile, the well-tailored Hart treats his charge Eggsy like a “Pygmalion” project, teaching proper etiquette and getting him fitted for his first bespoke suit at the Kingsman tailor shop.
A lot of the fun is the evolving relationship between mentor and protégé, with Eggsy adapting nicely to a sophisticated style.
Without a doubt, “Kingsman” is irreverent in tone and content. How else to explain the villain strategizing in the White House with the president, in a scene which clearly suggests Obama in a silhouette?
What about Hart wiping out an entire gathering of redneck worshipers in a rural Kentucky church? On top of all, dubious politicians and statesman conspire with Valentine’s perfidious schemes.
In the climactic finale, Eggsy – assisted by Mark Strong’s Merlin, the gadget-master of the Kingsman agency – takes on Valentine and Gazelle in a showdown that becomes so violent that heads literally explode like fireworks at a Fourth of July celebration.
The very last scene is, to say the least, a little bit cheeky, which won’t be explained here, but involves one of Valentine’s hostages, the Princess of Sweden, who is apparently only too happy to be rescued by the now-dapper Eggsy, acting very much like James Bond by arriving at her chamber with a bottle of champagne.
Even Michael Caine, once the espionage agent Harry Palmer, gets in the act with brief appearances as Arthur, the avuncular agency head.
The star power belongs to Colin Firth, who is spectacularly lethal, elegant and cool under pressure.
Taron Egerton is remarkable as the street tough-turned-suave agent and will be worth watching in the future.
“Kingsman: The Secret Service,” which is based on the graphic novels of Mark Millar, takes an insolent, sassy tone to the spy business, delivering a mix of impudent comedy and over-the-top violent action that fits with the cartoonish legacy of this genre.
In short, “Kingsman,” a spy film on steroids, is a lot of fun.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
