I went last night and it was not exactly what I was expecting. My companions adored it - I was a little taken aback at places.
Has anyone else seen it yet? What did you think?
I think you should have said “I had a reaction to the movie” instead of “taken aback”.
You were trying to be as vague as possible and not divulge any possible idea of what you thought, right?
The promos make it look very frenetic and "stylish’. How jam packed is it with impossible-in-reallife stunts? Judging by such flicks as those tedious Liam Neeson ones, the Bourne ones, Salt, and God knows how many more, those agents do Batman type stunts by dint of secret government training. I wish all government workers could be trained to that level of competence, not just the killing kind.
Nooo, I really was specifically “taken aback.” That was my reaction. I didn’t go into details because I figure it will be a general reaction thread for the movie (since I didn’t see another one) and didn’t want to make it too obviously a “lets all shit on this movie” or “only gush about how this is the greatest movie evar” type of thing. All opinions welcome, you know?
Anyway. It is very consciously stylized. Very meta, very winking and knowing. I felt some of the shifts between almost campy self-awareness and instantly serious graphic violence or social commentary were abrupt and disorienting, but no one else in my group felt that way, and I’m admittedly a wuss about violent/gory shit, even very obviously stylized and purposefully grotesque comedic violence.
I’m not sure that I liked it, but I enjoyed watching it. Samuel L. Jackson most likely had the time of his life playing the villain role, and the young man lead (no clue who he is) played his part of smirking smug working-class everyman hero very well - even up to looking quite Clark Kent/Superman-like towards the end. I appreciated that there was a young lady, but no romance. I thought the class attitudes were laid on pretty thick, but as I understand it, that’s a lot more of an English thing than an American one.
I dunno - just wondered what others thought.
I saw it on Wednesday. I thought it would be crap, because I am British and I hate all that stuff about how British people are supposed to be, stiff upper lip and all that. I thought the class comparisons would be really trite and the plot would be painfully obvious. (Note: it was my husband’s idea to see this film, I went along with it).
But I didn’t know Samuel L Jackson was in it. He made this film for me, I laughed so much at his parts and I just didn’t expect that at all. The whole film wasn’t what I expected. Ok, it was a slightly dumb film, but compared with The Interview, which is the dumbest film I have ever seen, this was as described above, at least knowing and winking.
Favourite part: “I fucking love Professor Arnold!”
I saw it today, in a very early showing and liked it, although it was disturbingly violent at moments. Not sure if we’re doing open spoilers here, so I’ll err on the side of caution.
[SPOILER]The scene in the Kentucky church and even more so the scene of Eggsy’s mother trying to get to her daughter were a bit much.
I did like the scene in the bunker of the heads exploding, set to the Elgar music, because that was so over-the-top and comical.
But I liked this exchange:
Harry/Galahad: Have you seen Trading Places? Nikita? Pretty Woman?
Eggsy gives a blank stare and then replies, “Oh, you mean like My Fair Lady.”
But then at the end there was a callback to the end of Trading Places. (Looking good, Billy Ray!/Feeling good, Louis!)
And I totally missed that the professor was played by Mark Hamill.
[/SPOILER]
But what kind of name is Eggsy?
I caught that callback as well, Dewey. Had to explain it to my wife.
The movie was far better than I expected. Big awesome fun.
A nickname? 
I really enjoyed it - rather over the top in the violence category, but in a way that was more cartoon-y than anything. And Samuel L Jackson’s villain (who can’t stand the sight of blood) was great.
Me too. My brother took me to see it and gave me a piggy back ride. Just like we used to do when we were kids.
So, I really was “taken aback”! How about that?
Was that just too cheezy? My wife said it was an OK joke. I didn’t think so.
The bit with the dogs was an annoying cliché, plus, for some reason:
[spoiler]Eggsy gets into the cab with his dog when he leaves the training estate, and the dog subsequently vanishes from the movie. Also, did the other students who’d washed out keep their dogs? Where was the girl’s dog after she “shot” it? Didn’t Eggsy’s father go through the dog test, too, and if so, did he keep his dog? There’s no sign of it during the flashback scene where Harry delivers the medal to Eggsy’s mom.
ALSO… if the Michael Caine character had already been co-opted and gotten his surgical implant, why is Valentine completely ignorant of the Kingsmen, at least when trying to figure out who Harry is?[/spoiler]
It’s a slick, comical and utterly nonsensical spy thriller. The henchwoman, Gazelle, was cool, though for the first half of the movie, I thought she was played by Patricia Velásquez (of the 1999 and 2001 Mummy movies).
Those are good questions that aren’t explained in the film. I have a comment on one of your questions and another question.
[SPOILER]After the candidates were told to choose and raise a dog, I fully expected the scene in which Eggsy was told to shoot his. I think we’ve discussed the idea that this was supposedly really used as a training technique.
And when Arthur (played by Michael Caine) was having the augmented reality conference, we saw other agents, but only Merlin, Eggsy and Roxy were involved in the final battle. So where was everyone else? Perhaps after Arthur was co-opted, the other agents were killed?[/SPOILER]
I saw them, but you had you keep your glasses on.
Your theater gave you the special glasses when you entered, didn’t it?
Before I saw it, I had heard it was a send up on James Bond and other over the top spy movies. So I went into it expecting it to be over the top. It didn’t disappoint, but you do have to be prepared for it to be violent satire - and not of the “artistically redeeming” Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill sort of way, just silly. For that reason I loved it - had I expected something else, I think I’d have been disappointed.
I just assumed…
…the other Kingsmen were on assignment or simply not stationed in the UK. They have at least one other branch in Berlin, likely more. The only explanation (other than bad writing) I can come up with for Valentine not knowing about the Kingsmen is that Arthur wasn’t turned until Valentine showed up in London until Ascot…
Oh and regarding Valentine’s paper list…
…was it just me, or did he have the entire Royal Family marked off including Prince George, who is a baby? :eek: Why would a baby even need the implant?!
Fantastic flick. Loved every minute of it, honestly. I’m inclined to think spoiler boxes are unnecessary, as why come in a thread to discuss a film you haven’t seen, but… shrugs
[spoiler]So far as the dog goes, ISTR he came home, dropped the dog off, and then took off to kick some ass at the pub. And I don’t get the impression that he was away from home all that long from that point to when he finishes things up w/ Sam Jackson. Presumably Lancelot’s poodle was taken care of at Kingsman HQ. I didn’t get the impression that these dogs were being trained as anything other than companions–they were a responsibility, and training them was a way to train the Kingsmen-wannabes. After all, if you’re going to be training these as elite battle dogs, why on earth are you going to offer pugs and whatever little terrier that was Galahad had? I’ll admit it’s not tied up as neatly as it could’ve been, though.
I’m also thinking that the other Kingsmen were off on assignment elsewhere. Though one wonders if they keep a bottle of the special brandy in every office around the globe.
It’s not clear at all when exactly Arthur was recruited. I suppose the natural moment would be when Samuel Jackson tracks Galahad to the tailor shop. That doesn’t cause any problems for when Jackson knew what.
It’s going to be a rather interesting world the day after V-day–large swaths of the world’s elite have had their heads exploded, including, at a minimum, the entire royal family, the President and cabinet, and the Prime Minister of Sweden. Very interesting indeed…[/spoiler]
On this question, I think they mentioned it very briefly, but:
…when Merlin found out about the implants, he has a brief line about how they can’t know if any other Kingsmen have been implanted as well, so they can only count on themselves. Of course, after the movie is over, any who were subverted have been conveniently fire-worked.
(hating the spoiler boxes) - well -
not after - during - there would be no doubt.
The bigger question is, like the scene in ky - just how many folks they offed during the ‘purge’.
And really, there in lies the rub to Valentine’s Massacre - he wasn’t leaving anyone behind to help clean up the mess - could you imagine the stench after that?
What bothered me is that they didn’t even try to put Humpty Dumpty back together. Leaving it to the Kingshorses I see.
This was a lot of fun. It wasn’t particularly great, but it did a lot of cool little things and avoided most of the big, dumb blunders that this kind of movie usually makes. I always enjoy the first decent popcorn movie of late winter after spending the last two months watching Serious Dramas, so there’s that going for it, too.
Also, I appreciate anything that is so unapologetic about its obsession with fine suits!
One serious thing I didn’t get was:
Do the Kingsmen, for all their wealth, not offer a widow’s pension? Seems like a fairly standard “classy” thing for an occupation where death is not unexpected. There should be no reason why Eggsy’s mom would be so poor that she’s shacking up with some dude for support. Given that clearly there is no support for widows, it does seem that she’ll be back out on the street in the even of Eggsy’s demise in the line of duty.