Kingsman: The Secret Service

Released:  February 13^th, 2015

Rated:  currently unrated

Distributor:  20^th Century Fox

Starring:  Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Sofia Boutella

Directed by:  Matthew Vaughn

Written by:  Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn

Personal Bias Alert:  haven’t seen Kickass, not familiar with the comics

8.2 of 10

            This film is all about style.  Too often, a film’s style comes down to replicating whatever’s worked before, leading to the feeling of sameness that permeates nearly all genres of film.  Directors with a true voice exist (Wes Anderson, Terrence Malick, and the Wachowskis jump immediately to mind), but if successful, their inventions often become nothing more than the new norm.  That’s why it’s especially exciting to see work from someone like director Matthew Vaughn, who brings a uniquely humorous and violent voice to Kingsman:  The Secret Service but hasn’t hit it big enough to gain admiring replicators.

            Yes, Vaughn directed the successful return-to-form X-Men:  First Class, but in adhering to the lucrative series’ more weighty tone, his own playfulness was rightly tamped down.  So successful was the reboot that Vaughn was asked back to direct Days of Future Past, which he gave up to man the helm of the smaller but less restrictive Kingsman.  It just might prove to be a career-defining moment, as Kingsman delivers a mass appeal story with just the right amount of flourishes to become 2015’s first big hit with critics and audiences alike.

            Smattering together several familiar storylines, this coming-of-age spy riff follows the tryout of Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton) for the top-secret spy organization The Kingsman.  It’s an upper-crust British outfit following the Bond formula of slick suits and clever accessories that proves not very open to Eggsy’s lower class roughness.  The obvious chip on his shoulder is there, but Eggsy’s also smart enough to know that he can run with these guys.  It’s a deceptively difficult part that requires a balance of action, drama, and humor, and Egerton’s a major find.  For a relative newcomer, he seems at ease carrying this film and exudes a brash, bad boy charm that’s so perfectly Eggsy.

            The other ‘find,’ and what has drawn significantly more chatter throughout production, is the casting of Colin Firth as Eggsy’s mentor.  The former Mr. Darcy, stuttering King, and ABBA rocker might seem out of place in our current spy model of action-heavy leads, but Firth cuts a fitting silhouette as a dapper, old-school infiltrator.  That’s not to say that he doesn’t get his fair share of action (which he handles very well, thank you very much), it’s just not his method of choice.

            When Firth, Egerton, and others do break out the action, Vaughn pulls out all the stops to make it a raucously good time.  It’s violent, excellently choreographed, and smoothly filmed, so you refreshingly aren’t going to miss a single punch or slice.  However, there’s no nastiness to these scenes.  It’s more an embrace of violence as entertainment, an acknowledgement that we enjoy the idea of it more in the over-the-top, thrilling way that comics portray it than in the somber, gritty way that many films, even comic book films, are now leaning towards.  Yes, this is a comic book film itself, based off a recent series from Marvel-owned subsidiary Icon Comics, but this is an even more playful, and oddly more cheery, style of action than The Avengers or even Guardians of the Galaxy.  Trust me, when Firth whips out that umbrella, you’re in for a good time.

            Even with all this healthy levity, Vaughn and cowriter Jane Goldman still work in some scenes of needed drama.  They stick to some common plotlines, making the beginning portion seem a bit familiar, but once they up the stakes for Eggsy this film truly takes off.  Even the villain played by Samuel L. Jackson, who borders on hammy in the trailer, proves to be a remarkably solid mix of humor and menace, enhanced greatly by his elegant but deadly enforcer Gazelle (Sofia Boutella).

            A perfect film it is not, but Kingsman:  The Secret Service is so surprising in its entertainment that it’s hard not to scream its praises from the rooftop.  Here’s to hoping that this film’s greatness doesn’t get lost in the beginning of the year quagmire.

Other Notes:

Ø  I can’t imagine this film not getting an R rating from the MPAA.  It’s a rare blockbuster for adults.

Ø  Suits really do make guys look good.

Ø  Totally didn’t notice that was Mark Hamill.  Guess I have to turn in my Star Wars Nerd card.

Interstellar

Released:  November 7^th, 2014

Rated:  PG-13

Studio:  Paramount Pictures

Starring:  Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine

Directed by:  Christopher Nolan         

Written by:  Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan

Personal Bias Alert:  likes the Nolan brothers, not a big McConaughey fan

7 of 10

            I tried to avoid hearing about Interstellar, but with the amount of times I go to theaters, seeing the trailer was almost inevitable.  Watching it took me on a bad roller coaster ride, with the good (an intriguing Michael Caine voiceover, excellent visuals, and the ever-steady Jessica Chastain) alternating with the bad (an overwritten line and references to the vague but mighty power of love), causing emotional whiplash between excitement and apprehension.  Still, I showed up for the first possible screening, an IMAX 70mm showing at 8pm Tuesday.  This is Nolan, after all, a director with a proven track record of making intelligent entertainment pieces.

            It would be easy to go on and on about what Interstellar isn’t.  It isn’t a perfect blend of smarts and spectacle.  It isn’t Nolan’s masterpiece.  It isn’t enough to carry him to Oscar glory.  But framing a review like that misses everything that Interstellar is:  an ambitious, messy, and at times wonderful piece of work.

            Matthew McConaughey stars as a single father recruited by NASA to pilot a small expedition that must travel through a wormhole and skirt the edges of black holes to save humanity.  You see, Earth is no longer able to support human life, so a new, hospitable planet must be found in a hurry.  McConaughey’s Coop is reticent to leave his children, a plot point that feels natural thanks to the time the Nolan brothers take to establish the family’s relationships at the beginning of the film.  Too often this sort of plot point is taken for granted, and the audience is expected to accept the parent’s tormented when we’ve only seen the entire family together for one or two scenes.  It’s not that we’re monsters; we understand intellectually the bond between parents and children, but it’s much more resonant if we’re allowed to see that bond play out.

            This early portion of the film also allows us to see just how bad it’s gotten on Earth.  I’ve long considered the American dust bowl the most terrifying time I’ve ever heard of, and Interstellar is clearly lifting from this time period’s problems.  There’s crop failure, dust storms, and economic hardships.  It’s the dust storm that give us the film’s first grand visual, and it’s truly a wonder to behold.  This and later sequences of space and foreign planets are high points of the film, impeccable to look at and lingered on just long enough to instill a sense of wonder.  If the film could have maintained the early part’s balance between story, character, and spectacle, this could have gone down as Nolan’s masterpiece.

            But Coop and company must leave Earth, after which the nuts and bolts of complex space travel and Nolan’s insistence on big action sequences take over.  Not enough time is dedicated to characters or emotional arcs, and these aspects remain largely stagnant until the very end of the film.  It’s really a failure of setup.  Only four people go on the mission:  the fully realized Coop, the erratic and hyperbolic Brand (Anne Hathaway), and two other men who have no character traits I can remember.  Sticking your main character in a situation like that leaves little room for meaningful interactions and leads to the stagnation and eventual regression of character that Coop undergoes.

            Then you get the failure of the actual story.  I won’t get into spoilery details, so let’s just say that it doesn’t make sense.  There’s a troublesome ontological paradox (look it up) and an ending that unsuccessfully tries to land the emotional arcs that the film had dropped during its long middle section.  There’s few ways to leave the audience less satisfied than to muck up the ending both intellectually and emotionally.

            Even with a bad ending and a lackluster middle section, there’s more than enough here to make this a good movie.   That early portion is almost flawless, and the spectacle of experiencing the film in theaters shouldn’t be missed.  The bar for this film was simply set too high by audiences and the Nolan brothers alike.  They bit off more than they could chew, and we saw the potential for what this could be and expected them to pull it off.  Interstellar is a lesser film than we all wanted it to be, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad.

            Other Notes:

Ø  This is paced very much like other Nolan films.  There’s the steadily building tension interspersed with big action sequences, but it lacks a true climax.

Ø  Once characters start talking about love transcending time and space, I check out.

Ø  McConaughey feels like a Coop.