Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) - Movie Review

"Manners Maketh Man."

This is one of those movies that completely takes you by surprise. I enjoyed it immensely. James Bond type-ish british spy film, but with way WAY more wack and awesomeness. Matthew Vaughn is a great director. I've watched all of his films (except Layer Cake) and the guy just has a knack of delivering really enjoyable/entertaining movies (Stardust, Xmen - First class, Kick ass).

The cast delivered great performances all round. Colin Firth simply KICKED ASS. Loved his character and how classy yet deadly he was. Taron Egerton, the protagonist, was some nobody to me before I saw this movie. Now, he is a star in the making. Samuel L.Jackson, while didn't stole the show or anything, was a pretty good villain with a funny lisp condition.

The plot actually felt somewhat fresh and wasn't your typical 'Take over the world' type scenarios that you see in this genre. Although I have see the main mechanism elsewhere, the reasons for doing, the justification and all that was something that I could standby with. Also, the movie had some messages about over reliance on smartphones, privacy hacks etc which I really liked.

Coming to the action, let me just say that it was just awesome. The pacing was so well done that many scenes had me on the edge of my seat with my heart thumping like crazy. The hand to hand scenes were also well executed. Full of gore, long takes, class and no excessive shaky cam and fast cuts bullshit. Add dark humor layer to it all and it was just a wonder to watch it all. The Church scene in particular really WOWED me.

Sound effects and OSTs were also perfectly edited in scenes, enhancing the experience, adding more adrenaline, class, humor etc as required.

The only complaint I had was that the movie tried to develop some romance and while I'm REALLY glad it didn't linger on it, it did kinda felt out of place and just tacked on.

Overall, it's the best movie of this year so far for me. I just hate myself for not seeing it in the cinema.

8.6/10

Comments

Baywatch (2017) - Movie Review

Baywatch is a movie based on the old TV series of the same name. It's about a bunch of lifeguards on a beach who try to uncover drug smuggling in their area...yeah, that is the plot. It's dumb, it's stupid, but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, it's not good, but it wasn't horrible either. The movie actually had some fun in it. The Rock, as always, was charismatic, funny and likable; and Zac Efron, surprisingly, was similar to that. He got ripped AF for the movie. Alexandra Daddario was fun as well, although any movie gets bonus points for just including her in my book. Priyanka Chopra was in it as well, and between her in this and Deepika Padukone in XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, Priyanka definitely was the better one. There were legit funny scenes sprinkled throughout, but there were also a shit ton of scenes that tried too hard to be hilarious but fell flat instead. Baywatch also had a large dosage...

John Wick 2 (2017) - Movie Review

John Wick 2 is a sequel to the 2014 surprise hit John Wick, and it follows him as he is forced to return to his former life once again. The trailers did a good job of not giving much away, so I'll keep it vague as well. The first one was great, so naturally, I was hyped for the sequel, and suffice to say it delivered where it mattered. Keanu Reeves once again reprises the role of ultimate bad-ass assassin John Wick, with different character motivations this time around, resulting in a more subdued performance than last time, which nonetheless works for the story, and it's just great seeing Keanu again in style. There are some familiar faces from the previous film like Ian McShane (Winston) and Lance Reddick (Hotel Manager), giving similarly good performances. And new ones like Laurence Fishburn, resulting in a reunion of Neo and Morpheus, which should make any Matrix fan cheer up inside, and he gave a good performance as well. One of the things that stood out to ...

The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) - Movie Review

The Hitman's Bodyguard stars Nick Fury and Deadpo-I mean Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds in a buddy action-comedy where Reynolds is a professional bodyguard who gets tangled up with a hitman portrayed by Jackson. What worked for me in this movie were the scenes with Reynolds and Jackson together. Their performances were what you'd expect them to give in a movie like this. Not breaking new grounds or anything like that but being their usual comedic personas, and they both were entertaining....well for the most part anyway. They had a nice chemistry, and they worked off each other well. And most of the action scenes were enjoyable, one in particular, which was a long take including Reynolds. The problem with The Hitman's Bodyguard, though, was that it had a lot of other stuff going on as well which just wasn't interesting enough for me to care because not only did it detract from the fun of the main duo, the movie took it way too seriously. It ...

Reviews Reactor

Search This Blog