DIRECTOR: Matthew Vaughn LEAD
CAST: Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Julianne
Moore, Mark Strong, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges, Pedro Pascal SCREENWRITER: Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn PRODUCER: Adam Bohling, David Reid, Matthew Vaughn EDITOR:
Eddie Hamilton MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Henry Jackman, Matthew Margeson GENRE: Action-Adventure, Comedy CINEMATOGRAPHER: George Richmond DISTRIBUTOR: Warners Bros. LOCATION: England, Wales, Italy RUNNING TIME: 141 minutes
Technical
assessment: 4
Moral
assessment: 2.5
CINEMA rating: V18
MTRCB rating: R13
Kingsman,
a British secret intelligence service, is wiped out—its headquarters blown up
and its agents killed, save for two. Eggsy
(Taron Egerton) and Merlin (Mark Strong) find a clue from the rubbles that leads
them to their counterpart US spy organization called Statesman. Kingsman and
Statesman track The Golden Circle, the group that sought to destroy Kingsman. Headed by drug lord Poppy Adams (Julianne
Moore), the group puts toxins in recreational drugs, threatening to kill millions.
Poppy offers to release an antidote if
the US stops its war on drugs. Meanwhile,
agent Harry Hart (Colin Firth) survives the gunshot in the first Kingsman movie (The Secret Service), but suffers from amnesia. He regains his memory and joins Eggsy in the mission.
Kingsman animates
the screen with a powerful cast. Firth’s Harry, despite the eye patch, makes a
dramatic switch from a mousy scholar to the resolute agent that he really is. Moore’s
Poppy and her quirks are so over-the-top funny and ridiculous. Strong’s Merlin breaks our heart when he gives
up his life for the mission while singing Take
Me Home, Country Roads. Egerton’s
Eggsy is perfect as an ever-so-grateful agent looking to Harry for affirmation.
Bruce Greenwood as the US President is a
parody of the real life leader, and he does it so well. Kingsman floods us with meticulously choreographed fight scenes in
a dainty 1950s diner, with graceful executions of punches and kicks, guns, explosions,
and CGI, made more exciting with riveting music and sound effects. Death,
goofiness, violence, and drama are weaved so well into the story that we find
ourselves relishing them in equal measure.
Therein
lies the danger in Kingsman. For young audiences especially. It makes the wrong delightful, fun and
guilt-free. With drugs as driver of
conflict in the story, Kingsman can
add noise to the real life division caused by the Philippines’ war on drugs and
its associated extra-judicial killings. Kingsman has all the elements of
extreme and excessive violence strapped into its storyline: guns, explosions, drugs,
alcohol, punching, cuss words, even a macabre meat-grinding of live, fully-clad
humans to turn them into burger patties. Women are portrayed at their worst: whimsical,
capricious, with one so gullible and vulnerable she doesn’t even notice a tracking
device has been inserted into her private parts. And so, although the heroes
win over the villains in the end, Kingsman
is an egregious route to impart its lessons (yes, we didn’t miss them): drug
abuse is dangerous; relationships matter; loyalty, friendship, brotherhood, and
sacrifice for the common good.
