Mark Millar/Dave Gibbon's THE SECRET SERVICE - Directed By Matthew Vaughn

[Batmannerism]

My turn,

I've been a Matthew Vaughn fan for a while and enjoyed Stardust, Kick-Ass and First Class (and of course his collaborations with Guy Ritchie !).

Anyway, I thought that Kingsman would be a hard sell, as I've kind of lost interest in the whole Gentleman Spy genre - I'm just so over James Bond.

However, Firth and Egerton were a delight. Firth really pulled out all the stops , he actually made me believe he was an action here for a bit there - which is a big ask for a guy who's claim to fame is playing a stuttering Prince and Mr Darcy.

The kid was great, Vaughn didn't make him so cocky as not to be likeable - which I think was key, he had to be the kind of guy you'd cheer for.

Great to see Mark Strong NOT playing a villain, a solid performance (as usual) - on that note I was looking for Matthew Vaughn's other buddies Jason Flemyng and Dexter Fletcher (who always seem to show up in his films) guess they were busy !

And as usual SLJ is entertaining, loved the prosthesis-enhanced henchwoman, sort of a gender-swap Oscar Pistorius on crack ! Again, this is Vaughn exploiting cliches but still managing to make it entertaining.

As usual, Vaughn takes the action to the brink of self-parody and then restores normality. We're not meant to take it seriously. How Vaughn manages to successfully combine the mundane (look at how ordinary Eggy's life and surroundings are, much like Dave Lisewski's ) with the fantastic (the world of superspies and superheroes) but make them interact seamlessly....well that's something special.

I thought the score particularly good, and distinctive - it was playing in my head after the film. Today so many film's scores are so bland ( probably my only gripe with Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor TDW that they had such vanilla "heroic" scores ). Only Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, and Ramin Djwadi seem to pull out real stand-out material anymore (kind of like the John Williams of old).

Anyway Jackman really upped his game with this one. Nice work indeed.
It danced the line between ridiculous and mundane with glee and carried it off nicely ( I hate it when James Bond breaks the laws of physics in a really obvious way, because he's meant to be semi-realistic, no such limitations on Kingsman ).

Overall Kingsman gets an 8.5/10 from me ( four stars out of five approximately) If there's a sequel hope they make the cast a little more diverse, although the focus on posh white upper-midddle-class british kids
was completely deliberate, so no need to do so in the first film.

cheers.

 

[Flint Marko]

Saw it tonight. Really enjoyed it as I knew I would, Matthew Vaughn is a damn fine director. The church scene in and of itself was worth the price of admission alone.
I had to laugh when I saw FOX snuck their own damn logo right in the middle of the movie.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

This is pretty much nailed on for a sequel now I believe, it's made over $200 million WW so far.

 

[Loki882]

The only question is, will Vaughn actually direct it? Sure he says that he's interested now, but he has a track record of walking off of sequels in the past.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I could be wrong, but I think this is one he would return for, he seems to like this universe and this seemed like a project close to him.

 

[Batmannerism]

I could be wrong, but I think this is one he would return for, he seems to like this universe and this seemed like a project close to him.

He said as much. He gave up directing Days of Future Past to do Kingsman.

(wish he had done Days of Future Past, I'm not a fan of Bryan Singer)

Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSy0RPdTj1Q

This is another collaboration with Mark Millar (the author of both Kick Ass and Kingsman). Let's hope he comes back, because if he doesn't we don't want another Kick Ass 2 !

 

[BlackFox]

I would love it if he did a film version of Mark Millars Nemesis next, that would be awesome and interesting to see Vaughns take on that comic book.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

He said as much. He gave up directing Days of Future Past to do Kingsman.

(wish he had done Days of Future Past, I'm not a fan of Bryan Singer)

Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSy0RPdTj1Q

This is another collaboration with Mark Millar (the author of both Kick Ass and Kingsman). Let's hope he comes back, because if he doesn't we don't want another Kick Ass 2 !

Well as a Singer fan I was delighted and I freaking loved DOFP, so that worked out well. But yeah I think Vaughn would return for this.

I liked Kick-Ass 2 though personally.

 

[Batmannerism]

Well as a Singer fan I was delighted and I freaking loved DOFP, so that worked out well. But yeah I think Vaughn would return for this.

I liked Kick-Ass 2 though personally.

totally respect your opinion dude, but disagree.

DOFP was good, but I find Singer's X-films quite forgettable. I enjoy them at the time and then a couple of days later struggle to think of any really memorable bits.

If I try to think of any really iconic moments in Singer's X-films, probably the ones that stick in my mind were "You homo sapiens and your guns !" from the first X-film, and Nightcrawler's attack on the White House and Lady Deathstrike v Logan fight from X-2. X-2 or X-Men United, or whatever it's called is definitely the pinnacle of Singer's work on comic films
Okay, the one memorable moment for me from DOFP, was when Xavier tells Logan to **** off .

Otherwise....not really. Here's my beef with Singer, somehow he manages to not make me really care about the characters. Like when all the X-Men get killed one by one in DOFP, I just couldn't care less. It's weird, yes I know that they'll all be resurrected by the time re-set, but seeing really beloved characters like that be brutally slaughtered, well it should have more impact.

E.g. in Fellowship of the Ring, everyone knows Gandalf is going to come back from the dead, yet when he apparently dies people get really upset (in the cinema I was in the audience was completely silent, and someone started crying). Somehow Peter Jackson just handles the characters better and makes them more likeable.

I mean Singer had an incredible cast to work with ( Ellen freaking Page ! Hugh Jackman, Pat Stewart, Ian McKellen, Michael Fassbender, James Macavoy...... I mean these are amazing actors, hell Halle Berry's in there two, an Oscar winner, and yet somehow Singer manages to squander their talents so that I really don't care about them.

I mean, in Last Stand, which I actually enjoyed, When Xavier dies - that's emotional ! Say what you want about Brett Ratner, but he really created a great "Obi Wan" moment there. Yeah, he butchered the Phoenix saga (my all-time favourite X-men story) but that was a great moment.

At the end when Magneto's playing chess and feels his powers returning, that's also well done.

Totally personal taste here, but Singer doesn't do it for me.


Kick Ass 2....wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but wasn't anything on the first film. Part of that I think was the change of directors, and the other was the source material - which is possibly a less captivating story than Kick Ass (1).

On that note, I'm actually glad that Vaughn waters down the violence in his adaptations of Mark Millar comics. Kick Ass was a very violent film but pales in comparison to the actual comic book, which really pushes the envelope ( but then so do Millar's other works such as Supercrooks and Wanted).

Really, they should do a Hit Girl solo film - Chloe Moretz really carried Kick Ass 2, and stole every scene in Kick Ass, she could easily carry a film by herself. Now that would be a great project to see Vaughn in charge of.

Anyway, hopefully Vaughn is back for Kingsman 2 !

Cheers.

 

[Loki882]

TLS was crap. "Emotional" the only emotion I felt at Xavier's "death" was annoyance at how dumb/unearned it was, and how they'd ruined Xavier's character throughout that entire movie. Hell Sen. Kelley's death in X1 was more emotional, and he was an A-hole.

 

[Bruce Malone]

I'm late to the party but man I was blown away by this film. I wish I actually got to see it in theaters must have been a fun atmosphere to see it in. At the time it just didn't seem too interesting but yeah I was wrong.

I really hope Vaughan comes back for the sequel, this film has his style all-over it.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

TLS was crap. "Emotional" the only emotion I felt at Xavier's "death" was annoyance at how dumb/unearned it was, and how they'd ruined Xavier's character throughout that entire movie. Hell Sen. Kelley's death in X1 was more emotional, and he was an A-hole.

Totally agreed, the only emotional thing about X3 was having to watch it, especially following X2, and I felt 3000 times more emotion with Jean's in X2 than Xaviers in X3, and that's despite the fact I know Jean is going to come back.

I'm late to the party but man I was blown away by this film. I wish I actually got to see it in theaters must have been a fun atmosphere to see it in. At the time it just didn't seem too interesting but yeah I was wrong.

I really hope Vaughan comes back for the sequel, this film has his style all-over it.

It was awesome in the cinema, one of the most fun times I have had for a while.

 

[Keehar]

X-3 didn't make any of the death's emotional. Not even Jean's 2nd death at the end. Big fail. Movie was too short.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

X-3 didn't make any of the death's emotional. Not even Jean's 2nd death at the end. Big fail. Movie was too short.

Definitely, following X2 shouldnt have been that hard as all the story threads were set up there, but they still managed to screw it up. Thank god Fox are much better with their blockbusters now.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

It's laughable to compare Gandalf to any of the future mutant fodder in any sort of narrative level. If anybody was the Gandalf of DOFP, it was Logan. Not the guy with the eyeshadows, or the guy who turned into the human torch. They are just their to sell the threat of the Sentinels and the future.

 

[Octoberist]

Matthew Vaughn Confirms Kingsman Sequel, May Direct It Himself

http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/ne...ingsman-sequel-may-direct-it-himself#/slide/1

 

[Bruce Malone]

I hope he comes back. I don't think he came back for Kick-Ass 2 and that apparently sucked.

 

[Drz]

I would say the small budget hurt KA2 the most but the director should have realized this small budget and not try to do things that grand of an scale.

 

[WebbOfficial]

That's good news. Kingsman was the craziest film so far this year along with Mad Max Fury Road.

Matthew Vaughn Confirms Kingsman Sequel, May Direct It Himself

http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/ne...ingsman-sequel-may-direct-it-himself#/slide/1