I watch movies every week and then write down my thoughts. Read my previous reviews!
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it.
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| Kingsman: The Secret Service - Expertly crafted movie. |
Watch Kingsman: The Secret Service
Written by: Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn based on the comic book by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons
Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Caine, and Taron Egerton
Rated: R
Plot:
The Kingsman are a spy organization recruiting a new member as an evil megalomaniac is poised to wreak havoc on the world. Colin Firth plays Harry Hart who recruits Eggsy, played by Taron Egerton to the Kingsman.
Review:
Kingsman is entertaining and stylish, backed with substance due to it's comic book adaptation. It's a fun spy movie that acknowledges how ridiculous spy movies and the typical cliches. It felt a little like Men in Black from the start, with a street smart kid excelling over others groomed for the position. While the movie did a great job by not lingering on the training and conveying how much time passed to make the recruits skill levels believable, it still felt like a lull. This changed with the sky diving scene.
Six recruits are left, and they must make an undetected jump. The only catch is that one of them does not have a parachute. This scene was an excellent thrill ride. As one recruit after another pulls their chute, will the one without a chute have time to formulate a plan?
Another standout was the church scene. It was hyper-violent, crazy, and had copious amounts of CGI blood, but captured the style of the movie with slick editing and competently choreographed action. Colin Firth and Taron Egerton do an excellent job as a veteran and amateur spy. I like that the villain, played by Samuel L. Jackson, had a detailed if not highly misguided and ridiculous reason to destroy the world. It's a clever joke, but Jackson didn't seem quite right for the part. I felt like I was watching Jackson and not a character, though the casting isn't bad. His characterization was well done. The villain has a number of quirks that add a bit of depth.
Verdict:
Kingsman is a funny, self aware spy movie. It's definitely a product of the times, but everything comes together quite nicely with a number of memorable scenes. It's thoroughly entertaining.
Watch it.
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| Kingsman: The Secret Service - The conclusion of the excellent sky diving scene. |
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| The Expendables 3 - Cue Wesley Snipes tax evasion jokes. |
The Expendables 3 (2014)
Watch The Expendables 3
Written by: Sylvester Stallone and Creighton Rothenberger & Katrin Benedikt
Story by: Sylvester Stallone
Characters by: David Callaham
Directed by: Patrick Hughes
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Randy Couture
Rated: PG-13
Plot:
The Expendables meet an old foe who they thought was dead. With their dwindling numbers, it's time to seek new recruits for their most dangerous mission yet.
Review:
For an action movie, it's surprising how boring this movie is. The action scenes are uninspiring. The action scenes aren't as bad as The Expendables 2, but those scenes were unbelievably bad. I knew twenty minutes in I wouldn't like this movie and wouldn't recommend it. Do I continue watching? I did. So my review is complete, despite the fact watching the entire movie doesn't change my review much.
The hook The Expendbles series provides is incorporating action movie stars into one movie. While this movie incorporates Wesley Snipes and Mel Gibson, Stallone's character shelves his team half way through for a new more expendable team. Other than Ronda Rousey, I didn't know the actors. This series purpose is to put well known action stars on screen at one time, and this movie opts out of that. Why? Great idea to abandon what made the first movie unique.
I wish the movie was more self aware. We get a Wesley Snipes tax evasion joke, but even that is tired now. Why didn't we get a few Demolition Man or Lethal Weapon jokes. Mel Gibson should have had the line, "I'm too old for this stuff." Why not include Danny Glover? We do get Kelsey Grammar. Frasier was about a secret operative impersonating a snooty psychiatrist, right?
Verdict:
This movie is a missed opportunity. There is no attempt to make this a fun movie. It could have added a lot of humor with the action genre and the cast's body of previous work. Did I mention it's boring? It's also too long at over two hours. At three movies in, why have they not not hired someone that can competently choreograph action scenes? Without the big name actors in the movie, it would have been a straight to DVD, bargain bin movie.
Skip it.
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