“Remember when spy movies blended melodramatic international intrigue with wacky gadgetry, high adventure, and the good breeding of the gentlemen class? Remember when they weren’t po-faced efforts pressured, perhaps by unreasonable audience demands, into being grounded and gritty, plus any number of tepid industry buzzwords? Matthew Vaughn does, and for that matter so does comic book writer Mark Millar. For the second time in Vaughn’s filmmaking career, he’s adapted one of Millar’s comics for the screen with bloody brio; if 2011’s Kick-Ass left you wide-eyed over its staccato bursts of efficient graphic violence, then Kingsman: The Secret Service may do you one better.” (Via Paste Magazine.)
