Ever since The Bourne Identity popped its gritty head out, spy movies have taken a turn for the dark. Exploding pens have been replaced with assault rifles, eye patch wearing monologue spitting madmen replaced with less flamboyant villains, and the womanizing, pun quipping, semi-alcoholic heroes have all but vanished. Many of these new spy films are good, even great, but there’s still an unfortunate  absence of cinema like the espionage movies of the past, where Roger Moore fought a 7 foot tall strongman with metal teeth, and Sean Connery dated women with names like Vesper Lynd.

               

That’s why I’m so happy that Kingsman: The Secret Service is such a fantastic throwback to the past. From the evil henchwoman with what can only be described as pogo-stick knife legs, to the umbrella that fires shotgun shells, Kingsman is a silly, outrageous ride, a love letter to a classic genre, and one of the best spy films released in a very long while. Its story of spy in training Eggsy Unwin may be a classic underdog story, but it’s told with enough passion to give even the most hardened secret agents a genuine thrill.

               

Like any good spy film, you need a great hero, and an even better villain. And while Colin Firth is great as perfect gentleman spy Galahad, Samuel L. Jackson steals the show as completely over the top villain Richmond Valentine. Not an actor well known for subtlety, Jackson is hammier than a Hawaiian pork roast, not so much chewing scenery as gnawing it to a pulp. Wearing a series of increasingly ridiculous ball caps, hurling at the faintest hint of blood, and speaking in a lisp that would make Mike Tyson proud, Valentine is completely and irredeemably ridiculous. And while in another movie this could be a problem, in Kingsman’s ridiculous world Valentine seems like a natural extension, and serves as the funniest villain since Austin Power’s Doctor Evil.

               

Matthew Vaughn has already proved himself a capable director of action with X-men: First Class and Kick-A##, but the crazy fights and stunts in Kingsman are his best yet. The sheer variety is impressive, including everything from a heart pounding skydiving scene to multiple all out brawls with hundreds of disgruntled pedestrians fighting in the streets.  And Kingsman’s R rating means it doesn’t have to hold anything back, making for over the top violence that’s as funny as it is unsettling. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a grenade firing umbrella destroy an entire squadron of henchman.

               

And, perhaps most importantly, Kingsman has heart. Eggsy is a bit of a thug when we meet him, his promise held down by situations out of his control, but with The Secret Service and his training, he finds something in himself he didn’t know he had. His journey, while hitting all the same beats as Rocky, Rudy, and a hundred other underdog films, is still moving and emotional in a way many films featuring pogo-stick knife legs lack.          

               

Over the top, silly, and a bit juvenile, Kingsman is still one of the best spy films ever made, every bit as good as the Bourne’s and the Bond’s. No matter what you like, Kingsman has something to offer you, and just like the elite agents themselves, proves to be the best in its class.

 

4.5 out of 5