REVIEW: Suits and blood mark 'Kingsman'

MANILA, Philippines — Uneasily funny, intentionally silly, and gruesome bordering on the disturbing, Matthew Vaughn's "Kingsman: The Secret Service" is somewhat opposite of what its super spies are required to be—well-connected, well-mannered and understated.

Garry "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton) is an unemployed school dropout living a dead-end existence in his mother's flat. After he is arrested for joyriding, Eggsy uses a medal, which his father is rewarded posthumously, to secure his release from jail. The young man then finds himself rescued by Harry Hart (Colin Firth), an impeccably suave spy who owes Eggsy's father his life.

Harry recruits Eggsy to a super-secret spy agency with an ultra-competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius, Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson).

"Taron (Egerton, who plays spy recruit Eggsy), had never done a movie, but you get a feeling about someone," says director Matthew Vaughn.

Sofia Boutella and Samuel L. Jackson are disillusioned eco-campaigners whose desire to save the earth at any cost lead them to devise a scheme that will have devastating consequences for everyone.

Egerton describes the process of shooting the film as “scary, but wonderful. What more can any young actor want?"

The film goes for the overkill—even literally—with world leaders' heads exploding to the tune of a military chant and a massacre inside a church is done with suave, cadence and brutality that nearly spoiled the plot.

But the big-name cast and introductory actors and their corresponding characters, most of whom appear in bespoke suits, save the violent sequences from spoiling the joys of watching the film.

Don't let their suits fool you. There is more to the action-comedy presentation that you expect to get. - Philstar Movies

"Kingsman: The Secret Service" from 20th Century Fox opens February 18 in Philippine cinemas. Rated R-16.