Almost put this in the Pit, but thought I would elevate the conversation.
Really, this movie is trash. Michael Caine and Colin Firth should be ashamed.
Inconsistent Violence - ok, almost gave this a pass but couldn’t. My fiance can’t stomach the site of blood, so she has to cover her eyes a lot. We’ve found it not to be a problem with Marvel type movies and thought this would be similar. We were wrong about half the time. But that’s the problem. Half the time it only insinuates the violence and half the time it’s showing blood clouds from GSWs to heads. Make up your damn mind! Most violent movies you can tell from the trailers, but this one was sneaky and frankly deceptive.
A bunch of White Dudes - really, this movie doesn’t even try to be politically correct. I’m not saying all movies have to be, but the pastiness of the world’s most independent spy agency was astounding (not to mention the only black character is… the villain). Maybe that triteness was supposed to be the point… but that brings me to my third gripe:
This movie makes Brits seem awful - If I were a Brit I’d be pissed. It basically portrays you all as horrible, bigoted, and ill-mannered people (while somehow making you feel slightly sorry for the KY clan church members that were murdered). It insinuates that the Brits (or at least the producer who one assumes to be british and the british actors who lent their name to the movie) think the Norwegians are nothing but prostitutes, that Americans are all capitalist pigs. I’m an American and I’m not gonna complain about a bit of good-humored American bashing, but this movie seems rather generous with it’s jibes at most of the world.
The final dedication line - at the end sobs about how the writer’s mom always raised him to behave like a kingsman. Well… if this movie is an example of such behavior I’m sure she would be horrified (be a dick to everyone, kill a lot of people, and ram it up the Norwegians’ southern fjord). This tagline is so incongruous with the plot and behavior of the main character that either the director either an idiot, a prick, or just whooshing the entire audience one last time.
All of this adds up to a movie that was deceptively marketed. The fiance actually watched the trailer and thought it would be good. It’s something like the british version of Inglorious Bastards, but was marketed as a Marvel-esque action flick. It’s trash and Michael Caine should be de-knighted for participating in it. (Colin Firth’s character was the only likeable one in it, but he still should have declined the movie).
Did you happen to notice that this movie was rated R, while the Marvel movies are typically rated PG-13? Why would you think the amount of blood and violence would be similar?
And I realize that your girlfriend is, presumably, an adult, but if she has problems with blood, you might want to review something like the parents’ guide in the IMDB listing for a movie before you take her to it.
I don’t think we’re supposed to feel sorry for the church members at all. If anything, that scene feels crafted very specifically to provide an ‘acceptable target’ for the villain’s test exercise.
And I really don’t see how having one character playing the ‘damsel in distress’ role, who happens to be Norwegian, suddenly means that the people who made the movie “think that Norwegians are nothing but prostitutes.”
Thank you for your responses, I’ve cooled down a bit. Mostly I was just frustrated by the disconnect between expectation from the trailer and reality and the fact that it ruined a nice evening out.
In the future I will take trailers with more of a grain of salt and appeal to some of the resources that you all have mentioned (thought admittedly the R/PG13 rating has always been a bit iffy for me, I will pay more attention to it now).
Thanks for putting up with the min-rant. Doper heads have prevailed.
They were all white because they were all upper crust brits “so which school - Oxford or Cambridge? Maybe St. Andrews, probably Durham.” There was a less-than subtle class distinction commentary going on.
I enjoyed it, and will watch it again when it hits Netflix.
I couldn’t disagree with the OP more, I loved Kingsmen. Great movie. Apparently he’s had not much to do with Brit’s who are almost as good as Aussies at self-deprecating humour.
Yep. The Brits I know who’ve seen it thought it was a great send up, even if it did lead to me getting a short lecture on the British class system.
I thought Kingsman was an excellent film. It was filled with sharp writing and great action sequences and yanked the right chains at the right time. Teamed up with Kick Ass and First Class Vaughn has had quite the little run here. That doesn’t even include producing Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.
He’s in my list for top working directors. Good sense of story and dialog and a fairly innovative visual style.
Honestly i feel it deserves a higher rating and you are one of the few people i have heard of not enjoying it. It was funny, the characters were likeable, the action scenes were great, and the villain was everything a spy movie bad guy should be. I simply can’t fathom watching this movie and not having a good time.
I think this is under-selling Kingsman. Kingsman is intended as something between satire and campy homage to old James Bond films. Wanted, on the other hand, was just intended to be a taken-at-face-value action movie (with a bit of jokeyness at the start/end). Now, the Wanted comic definitely is an interesting take on “what if comic book supervillains won”, but all of those elements were carved out in the translation to the screen. Not so with Kingsman.
Colin Firth was brilliant in the movie. He made the movie for me, along with Samuel L Jackson.
That said, some of the characters were just disappointing. Caine was just wasted potential; his role was minimal and ultimately pointless. But by far, my biggest disappointment was with the lead female character, Roxy. I thought the movie nicely subverted convention by having her selected as the Kingman, but not so fast. In the second half of the movie, she was quickly relegated to playing second fiddle to the male lead, who got all the fun action sequences & all the glory at the end of the day. Not only was Roxy’s task way less cooler than his (burst a balloon?! oh please!), she also couldn’t do it but for his remote support and encouragement. :smack:
I agree about the comparison with *Wanted *(which makes sense, considering that they shared a writer) - except, to its credit, it lacked *Wanted’s *griminess and nihilism.
Actually, it was fly a balloon into *space *and shoot down a *satellite *with a missile. It may not be as cool as gunfights and buttsex, but it was still pretty cool.
I quite enjoyed the movie.
I loved the princess’s promise to the hero if he saved the day, did NOT see that coming.
I loved Samuel L. Jackson’s character, and his #1 henchwoman.
My one question about the film was
When all the chips were set to self destruct, we didn’t slicey-legs girl’s head explode. I thought they specifically zoomed in on her neck earlier in the film and made a point of saying she had a chip.