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Author Topic: Kingsman: The Secret Service Stu Jamieson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 524 From: Buccan, Qld, Australia Registered: Jan 2008 posted 02-07-2015 07:41 PM                     "When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite" -- Winston Churchill "Manners maketh man." -- Harry Hart AKA Galahad Kingsman kicks off guns blazing with Dire Straits' Money For Nothing rocking on the soundtrack and a flash back to 1997. Wait. What? Money For Nothing in 1997? That's not right! And superimposed over this driving soundtrack is a flashy opening credits sequence which would usually flag a forthcoming crap movie. But what I didn't realise at the time was that Kingsman is directed by Matthew Vaughn. I'd seen the one-sheet for the film in the foyer and figured this was yet another entrant in the seemingly never-ending queue of comic book adaptations. If I'd known prior that Vaughn was the director, my initial doubts would have been unfounded as I would soon find out. In 2010, Vaughn produced Kick Ass, a brilliantly violent super hero movie about social degradation, indifference and spiralling crime. It's themes were as hard edged as it's violence and in this regard Kingsman is a worthy successor. The story has Harry Hart AKA Galahad (Colin Firth) recruiting juvenile delinquent Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton) into the Kingsmen - a group of aristocratic crime fighters posing as tailors. Naturally there's some internal resistance from the posh stodgies to recruiting a young chap from the other side of the tracks and this sets up the primary theme of class strictures and the boundaries they impose. Vaughn is finding himself a master of action violence, a worthy successor perhaps to Quentin Tarantino. And Like Tarantino, Kingsman references many other films. Some explicitly so like Trading Places, La Femme Nikita and (rather comically) Pretty Woman. But others are more subtle like lisp-encumbered master villain ,Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), is reminiscent of Mr Glass from Shyamalan's Unbreakable and his lethal double amputee sidekick, Gazelle (Sofia Boutella), plainly channels Gogo Yubari from Tarantino's Kill Bill. And the film as a whole has Vaughn clearly referencing the James Bond franchise (and giving it in the ass). As it turns out, James Bond through the "Kick-Ass" sphere looks mighty good! Colin Firth is absolutely brilliant playing against type as the stiif upper lip killer. He's the opposite number to Hit Girl in every respect and just as cool. Egerton also plays well as the chav who finds himself above his station and discovers there's power in tweed. Mark Strong is as strong as ever as Merlin and it's nice to see him at the opposite end of the crime scale to Kick-Ass. Jackson is a hoot as always as is Michael Cain as leader of the aristocrats, Arthur (yes, all the good guys have Camelot namesakes). And Boutella is a magnificent villain in both character and design. The only downside is that the means by which Eggsy is recruited is a bit naff and unlikely but I suppose it is, after all, just a McGuffin. Kingsman is ultra violent, ultra cool, funny and has a poignant social message to boot. It kicks out the jams from the get go and it's the most fun you'll have without watching Kick-Ass. 9 out of 10  |  IP: Logged Terry Lynn-Stevens Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1081 From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Registered: Dec 2012 posted 02-12-2015 10:14 PM                     This was a pretty good movie. I am curious to see how it plays out at the box office. From what I understand, the movie was delayed from a November opening, and from what I saw it was the last few minutes that might have been changed up a bit to please up the crowd. The final 30 minutes kind of go down hill but then the last few minutes is crowd pleasing.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 02-16-2015 03:00 PM                     Cinema: Harkins Theatres Bricktown 16 Screen: 11 Format: 2D, Dolby Surround 7.1 Presentation Problems: Audio quality could have been better Rating: 3 stars out of 4 My girlfriend and I spent Valentine's Day in Oklahoma City. Part of our plans was to see Kingsman: The Secret Service in the Dolby Atmos-equipped Cine Capri screen at Harkins' 16-plex in Bricktown. I figured there was a chance the show might be really popular so I ordered our tickets online a few days earlier, specifically on the Cine Capri screen. When we picked up our tickets at the box office I immediately noticed something wrong. Normally the tickets have the letters "Capri" printed big on them. Not this time. The tickets were labeled for a different auditorium. I told the lady at the window we specifically ordered tickets for the show time on the Cine Capri. She said 50 Shades of Grey was playing on that screen. Needless to say, I was pissed. I took the issue up with the theater manager. It turns out the theater chain's higher-ups decided late Thursday to place 50 Shades of Grey in all its Cine Capri houses for Friday and Saturday. Kingsman: The Secret Service would be back in the Cine Capri, playing in Dolby Atmos, Sunday. I told him we drove up from Lawton; we couldn't just turn around and come back the next day. He refunded the money for my tickets, gave us passes to see the movie in one of the regular auditoriums and a pair of re-admit passes for another visit. That was pretty decent. I'm still pretty irritated at whoever made the call to switch out those movies at the last minute. I can understand why they did it: money. There were long lines outside every auditorium showing 50 Shades of Grey. This is despite the bad reviews the books received as well as the bad reviews for the movie (it has a miserable 26% score at Rotten Tomatoes). 50 Shades of Grey is probably popular for the same cultural phenomenon reasons why so-called "reality TV" has literally ruined dozens of previously good cable channels. A large percentage of our nation's population loves to watch fast food quality entertainment. Ultimately if a movie theater chain is going to switch a specialized auditorium's shows they need to do that before they start selling advance tickets. By the way, I wasn't the only one put off by Kingsman not being on the Dolby Atmos screen. Others were there complaining about the same thing. Anyway, Kingsman: The Secret Service drew a pretty good sized crowd, but not at sell-out levels. My girlfriend and I thought the movie was pretty entertaining. My expectations were a little higher, but the show had enough good, cool or funny moments in it to rate a positive review. Kingsman had a good supporting cast. Colin Firth is almost always great at whatever he does. I'm used to seeing Mark Strong play villains. It was a change of pace to see him playing Merlin, a not so nice protagonist. My girlfriend kept laughing at Samuel Jackson's lisp-afflicted accent. I imagine his "Valentine" character had something to do with the timing of this movie's opening weekend release date. Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) was almost unrecognizable in what seemed like a cameo performance. Sofia Boutella's "Gazelle" should have had more screen time. Perhaps it had something to do with the CGI budget and rotoscoping those lethal stainless steel prosthetic legs onto her body. They probably had to save some of that cheddar for the "fireworks" in the climax.  |  IP: Logged Terry Lynn-Stevens Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1081 From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Registered: Dec 2012 posted 02-20-2015 10:06 AM                     Looks like the exhibitors are realizing that Dolby Atmos may not have the draw they thought it was going to have.  |  IP: Logged Geoff Jones Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 579 From: Broomfield, CO, USA Registered: Feb 2006 posted 02-20-2015 04:24 PM                        I saw Kingsmen last Friday on the Cine Capri screen at the Harkins Northfield in Denver. The presentation was terrific. Bobby, that totally sucks that they moved it on you. I enjoyed the movie. It skips back and forth between lighthearted & comedic and extremely dark & violent. The trailers don't really create an accurate impression, in my opinion. Recommended  |  IP: Logged Jason McMillan Film Handler Posts: 68 From: Houston, TX, USA Registered: Dec 2009 posted 02-20-2015 05:02 PM                     Cinema: Santikos Silverado 19 Tomball (nobody tell John Roddy) Screen: 9, Sunday 15-Feb 2:30 show Format: Dolby Atmos Specifically came to Santikos to see Kingsman is Dolby Atmos.. and while the presentation was very, very good (it always is)... Our movie was ruined by constant teenagers running in and out and so many glowing cell phones. As for the movie itself, I thought it was great fun -- I took it for what it was. The violence vs character development timing of the movie I felt was just right -- not too much of either. Even when Kingsman went into the realm of the absurd (and it did at times... I mean just how fast did he make it to Kentucky from the UK?) it still felt like fun. Unfortunately, I heard too many people talking in the lobby after the movie how they hated it because of the "political agenda" of the movie... how it forced issues of global warming and was anti-Republican. And that made me sad, because the whole point of a movie (well, except maybe a documentary) generally is to just fall into the story and just have fun... not politicize it. Still, if I had one issue about the presentation, the audio could have been a tad louder.. but that's just how I like it.. I'm sure it was fine for everyone else. Either way, I still have to be jealous because the company that contracts me on occasion for jobs has no such toys as Atmos.  |  IP: Logged Stu Jamieson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 524 From: Buccan, Qld, Australia Registered: Jan 2008 posted 02-20-2015 05:09 PM                     Good grief, the climate premise is a McGuffin. I'd clean forgotten it was even in there!  |  IP: Logged Sam Graham AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues. Posts: 1431 From: Waukee, IA Registered: Dec 2004 posted 02-23-2015 06:17 PM                        CINEMA: Regal Village Square, Las Vegas, NV AUDITORIUM: 2 PRESENTATION: Sony Digital 4K PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Had to go to the concession stand and ask them to start the movie RATING: Two stars (out of four) THE PLOT: A young punk goes to spy school. Wackiness ensues. quote: Geoff Jones The trailers don't really create an accurate impression, in my opinion. And therein lies my main problem...What the hell is this supposed to be? Fandango lists it as a comedy, but I've seen funnier dramas. It's supposed to be spy satire, but it's really not. It's just another spy movie. The church massacre to "Freebird" was by far the best scene, but I found little to like beyond that. And the dog scene...how fucking stupid was that.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-23-2015 07:10 PM                        quote: Bobby Henderson I'm still pretty irritated at whoever made the call to switch out those movies at the last minute. I can understand why they did it: money. Come on...it was Valentine's Day weekend. The big movie for that weekend was going to be 50 Shades. The idiot here is whoever scheduled Kingsmen for the "better" screen in the first place. It does suck what happened to you but it's not surprising that it happened. Some suit somewhere said to that manager, "Are you NUTS? 50 Shades is going to be crazy....put it in the big house."  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 02-23-2015 07:46 PM                     quote: Mike Blakesley Come on...it was Valentine's Day weekend. The big movie for that weekend was going to be 50 Shades. The idiot here is whoever scheduled Kingsmen for the "better" screen in the first place. Nevertheless, the theater was selling advance tickets online with Kingsman: The Secret Service booked on that Cine Capri screen -along with a modest $1 premium up charge for seeing the movie on that screen. I'm completely justified in being pissed about the last minute switch in auditoriums and taking the issue up with management about it. By the way, 50 Shades of Grey is pretty twisted choice for Valentine's Day date material. It sure wouldn't be good to see on a first date. That movie went from earning over $80 million in its first weekend to barely clearing $20 million the 2nd weekend. That's a hell of a drop. Meanwhile Kingsman: The Secret Service is still playing in Dolby Atmos on that Cine Capri screen, surprisingly. I figured McFarland USA would have booted Kingsman from that house (it also has a Dolby Atmos mix).  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-23-2015 09:23 PM                        What I meant was, it was probably a scheduling oversight. The person in charge of scheduling that screen put in Kingsmen, but some "higher up" (or maybe the manager himself) realized at the 11th hour that it was Valentine's weekend. There might have even been an agreement in place with Universal that "50 Shades" had to be played on the biggest screen for that weekend, and with "Kingsmen" being the smaller release it's no surprise that "50" won out. I didn't say you were wrong to be upset -- you weren't. The big 2nd weekend drop for 50 Shades is no surprise at all, the way that thing was hyped. Personally I'm glad for the drop -- we can now get the movie this week and only have to play it for one week. If it had had a 25% drop, they would have insisted on two weeks (and we would have passed). The only downer is that half of our audience already went to Billings to see it, but that happens with every over-hyped movie if we don't get it on the break. Sorry for the thread hijack, folks...I just remembered this is supposed to be a Kingsmen thread!  |  IP: Logged Geoff Jones Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 579 From: Broomfield, CO, USA Registered: Feb 2006 posted 02-23-2015 09:50 PM                        Oxfords, not brogues.  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Goeldner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1360 From: Washington, District of Columbia Registered: Jun 2008 posted 03-02-2015 09:44 PM                     quote: Sam Graham The church massacre to "Freebird" was by far the best scene, but I found little to like beyond that. I agree. honestly I heard this in standard 5.1 and I have to say the soundmix (in the surround channels) never seemed well utilized and somewhat subdued, I would assume the 7.1 and Atmos mix are more active?  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Goeldner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1360 From: Washington, District of Columbia Registered: Jun 2008 posted 04-15-2015 03:48 PM                     whoah - the Atmos mix just rocked (saw this again yesterday) - far more aggressive and louder than the 5.1 mix but still had a lot of aural surprises: the gurgling of the bubbles in the champagne glass filled up over your heads (nice).  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 04-15-2015 06:38 PM                     quote: Jonathan Goeldner whoah - the Atmos mix just rocked I was hired to run an ATMOS demo at a special venue last week and this is the film that they chose to run. I had to be in the booth during the show, but when I ran some QC tests before the screening, it sounded awesome.  |  IP: Logged

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