Kingsman: The Secret Service Review

When super spy Harry Hart loses a member of his team in the late 90s, he makes a promise to look out for the young son of the man who died trying to save him. Seventeen years later, Eggsy is a wayward teen with a permanently distraught mother and violent scumbag of a step father. When Eggsy is arrested for stealing a car, Harry Hart seeks out the troubled youth and offers him the chance to become a part of the mysterious and super secret spy agency known as the Kingsman. Seeing what Harry Hart can do, the gadgets he uses, and the class he oozes, Eggsy agrees to sign up to the competitive training regime that could see him taking on billionaire lisping megalomaniac Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson).

It is very clear from watching Kingsman that director Matthew Vaughn is not ready to give up on directing a Bond film yet. Whether he will ever get the gig in the future on the back of this film is very questionable. Kingsman is more like the film we would get if Tarantino ever gets to make a Bond film. It’s self-referential and smart, has a brilliantly foul mouth and is uber-violent from start to finish. Not to mention the fact that it takes an outsider’s perspective on Britain and fills the film with stereotypes of the class system, from the stiff upper lipped suited gents of the Kingsman to the ‘yeah bruv’ yoof of working class ladland.

Early contender for best scene of the year?

Kingsman takes great pleasure in pinching from Bond films, while giving tradition a good shake up. Valentine’s lisp, blade footed hench-woman and mountain lair all feel like they border on homage and parody, whereas other moments indulge in characters talking conventions before shockingly subverting what audiences have come to expect in these films.

To take the Tarantino comparison further, Matthew Vaughn really knows how to revel in the joy of a good splash of ultra-violence. The scene where Firth’s skilled spy is unleashed on a church congregation to the sounds of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird is one of the most excitingly executed, thrillingly shot and edited and funniest massacres in film history. Nothing in the rest of the film can touch it, but that doesn’t stop Vaughn from trying.

With its cast including Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Samuel L. Jackson and Mark Hamill, it’s a wonder that Taron Egerton even gets a look in as Eggsy. Doubters may think that he is a poor man’s substitute for the swagger and savagery of Jack O’ Connell but Egerton emerges as a winning choice to hold the film together, charming with his sly grin and convincing with his way with an umbrella.

Though there is a worrying undercurrent of upper class superiority and even scepticism about those who campaign  about climate change, if you can cast those niggling fears aside, there surely won’t be a more gleefully violent film than Kingsman this year. 

Watch the trailer:

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The Imitation Game Review

Benedict Cumberbatch is Alan Turing, a man intent on deciphering the enigma code used by the Germans in WW2. In playing Turing, Cumberbatch is the actor who has cracked the code for guaranteeing an Oscar nomination. Turing here is portrayed as being on the Autistic spectrum, finding it difficult to make friends, understand jokes or even be able to work as part of a team. He is a genius who seemed to only have one friend in his school days and then went on to work at Bletchley Park in order to figure out how the German’s were encoding all their radio communications during World War 2. The Imitation Game deals with his time at Bletchley most notably, but also flashes back to Turing’s days being bullied at school and forward to after the war where he was eventually arrested for being a homosexual.

The Imitation Game is a fascinating study of a man, who is leagues ahead of most he encounters in terms of intelligence, but struggles with personal relationships. More than that though, it is a gripping thriller that looks behind the bombings and battles of WW2 and instead investigates the men (and at least one woman) behind the curtain at Bletchley Park. These codebreakers were ultimately responsible for significantly impacting the length of the war, and also saving millions of lives. Despite not having a clue how their machines work, or what incredible calculations they are making, The Imitation Game remains riveting throughout. By mixing up the chronology, director Morten Tyldum makes what could have been another boring biopic into something more engaging and inevitably tragic.

This is definitely Cumberbatch’s show, but more than just one noteworthy performance, The Imitation Game dabbles briefly but memorably into the moral quandaries of war time decision making and the abhorrent treatment of homosexuals in post-war Britain. It is a testament to  the genius of Turing, but also a tragic reminder that the country he worked for turned its back on him.

Watch the trailer:

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BFI London Film Festival 2014 to open with The Imitation Game

Benedict Cumberbatch gets his stiff upper lip right out in the recent trailer for The Imitation Game, the latest film from Morten Tyldum, the director of the bonkers Jo Nesbo adaptation Headhunters. The Imitation Game has been chosen as the film to open the 2014 London Film Festival which, judging by this trailer, is a fairly exciting prospect indeed.

The films is ‘a dramatic portrayal of the life and work of Alan Turing, one of Britain’s most extraordinary unsung heroes, and one of the world’s greatest innovators’. There are a lot of very serious and stern faces in the trailer. Mark Strong warns of the possibility of execution, Matthew Goode looks on a bit baffled, and then Keira Knightley pops up with an accent so posh, it manages to make even Cumberbatch’s own tones sound positively common. Not enough famous faces for you? Well that bastard Tywin Lanister (Charles Dance) has recovered from his crossbow through the gut, enough to scowl his way through the trailer as well.

Here is a snippet from the London Film Festival website about the film:

 ‘The pioneer of modern-day computing, Turing is credited with cracking the German Enigma code and the film is a nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team at Britain’s top-secret code-breaking centre, Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II. Turing, whose contributions and genius significantly shortened the war, saving thousands of lives, was the eventual victim of an unenlightened British establishment, but his work and legacy live on.’

Alan Turing is positioned as an outsider, genius and an enigma and it’s at this point that you have to ask with all this talk of war, breaking codes and Bletchley Park shenanigans, um wait a minute... didn’t Kate Winslet and Dougray Scott cover all this already in Enigma? Hopefully not...

And what’s with the obsession with war at the London Film Festival this year? With Fury closing the Festival, the films announced so far definitely have the scent of death and glory very much in their nostrils. 

The premiere will be at the Odeon Leicester Square on Wednesday 8th October and no doubt there will plenty of stars on the red carpet flashing their gorgeous gnashers, even as the paparazzi flash back at them with their cameras. Cumberbitches/Cumberpeople (whatever they’re called) better get their life size cardboard cut outs/posters/Sherlock dolls at the ready because he’s sure to be smouldering. For the fellas, um Keira Knightley will be pouting her way along the red carpet before somebody hopefully gets her a giant bag of popcorn to enjoy during the movie.

BFI LFF director Clare Stewart says: 

‘We are thrilled to announce one of the most anticipated films of the year – The Imitation Game – as this year’s BFI London Film Festival Opening Night gala. Featuring extraordinary performances from the British talent in front of the camera and vividly directed by Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game does cinematic justice to Alan Turing’s vision, determination and personal story as well as his enduring impact on British history and contemporary life.’

Director Morten Tyldum says:
 ‘I am thrilled to be returning to London to share The Imitation Game with the audience of the BFI London Film Festival. The experience of directing this film has been so tremendously rewarding, and I am humbled to share Alan Turing’s incredible story on Opening Night.’

If you can’t get to the opening night gala, or any of the cinemas around the country that will screen the film simultaneously, then The Imitation Game opens in UK cinemas on 14 November, 2014. The full programme will be announced on Wednesday 3 September and public booking opens on 18 September.

Here is the trailer:



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