Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, Taron Egerton, Mark Hamill, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Sophia Boutella, Jack Davenport, Samantha Womack, Sophie Cookson, Tom Prior, Alisha Heng, Corey Johnson, Hanna Alstrom, Edward Holcroft, Geoff Bell, Lily Travers.

The secret agent film is not dead, many have tried to kill it off, none so much perhaps as open honesty between countries, but it remains a living and viable concept in a world in dire need of escapist drama every so often. Escapist with a touch of class, a dash of elegance, the bitter harvest of deception and a story line that never once allows your mind to wander and in the end delivered with the smirk of false modesty which is both charming and engaging, not the latest in the James Bond film franchise but the Jane Goldman and Mathew Vaughn big screen adaption of Mark Millar’s and Dave Gibbon’s graphic novel The Secret Service, Kingsman: The Secret Service.  

Caught somewhere between the 1960s television programme The Avengers, any number of James Bond films and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Kingsman offers much in the way of playing bulldozing other, more graphic, grittier films such as those within the Bourne Trilogy, out of the way with a hefty side swipe. Jason Bourne may appeal in a world devoid of hope, but hope exists for a reason and in the Kingsman, hope can be a crucial ally.

It somehow goes against nature to dare think of a film in which Colin Firth has not excelled in. An actor’s actor, he plays each part with a daring accuracy that it is impossible not to just enjoy, but to also admire his portrayal with the highest possible regard. That regard is enhanced with the Kingsman. It will never be seen by all as a defining career high but it is the grace he brings out in others that shines through. Working once more with Mark Strong, a fellow actor who has shared screen time with him on many occasions, is enough to understand just how well he plays each part to its fullest and with the surely now legendary Samuel L. Jackson, a man who seems to appear in more films than there are scripts to house his immense talent, Michael Caine who spits polished venom in great abundance and Taron Egerton, the young pretender to a super spy throne, the cast seem to congeal and form a tight artistically endowed unbreakable ring around Colin Firth.

In a film that could have descended into certain realms of maddening cliché ridden absurdity, of over thought clever appeal to an audience that either loves the spy genre or believes it to be a relic best left in the darkness of cinema’s jingoistic past, the Kingsman is enjoyable, in parts frustratingly brilliant, in others offering a grimness that doesn’t shy away from the grotesque and monstrous but always ingeniously only ever alluded to, and fully deserves to be one of the surprise great films of the year.

With strong performances by the aforementioned Colin Firth, especially in the church scene towards the end of the film, Samuel L. Jackson, relative newcomer Taron Egerton and the welcome return of Mark Hamill in a brief but ultimately satisfying part, the Kingsman is no ordinary film; it is delivered with crowning style.

Ian D. Hall