Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Cast: Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Caine, Sofia Boutella, Mark Hamill

I love it when I go into a film expecting little and come out completely excited because the movie I just saw exceeded my expectations. This is what happened to me with Kingsman: The Secret Service a movie I only had a vague idea about suddenly falls right into my best of the year list. This magnificent James Bond spoof comes to us from Matthew Vaughn, the guy who brought us Kick Ass (2010), X-Men: First Class (2011) and Stardust (2007) all entertaining films in my book. Vaughn wanted to make this movie so badly he said no to directing X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), so that’s how much of a passion project this movie is to Vaughn. Not every director will have the guts to say no to a sure hit that will make millions in order to make a risky film that’s totally original. Sure Kingsman is based on Matthew Vaughn’s own comic book ‘The Secret Service’, but it’s not a household name. It’s not a sure thing. You have to respect a director who believes so much in his film that his willing to do that. The thing is that I see why he did it. Turns out Kingsman was way more entertaining than the last X-Men movie every step of the way, so I’m actually happy Vaughn eschewed X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) for Kingsman.

In Kingsman: The Secret Service we are introduced to Eggsy, a young man who is going down the dark path. He’s all about being a trouble maker. He likes to go to bars to pick fights and cause a ruckus. But there’s something about him, he’s got potential to be something great. Secret Service Agent Harry Hart recognizes this, so he gives him a chance to apply to become a Kingsman. Just what the hell is a Kingsman and does Eggsy have what it takes to become one? Or is he just another loser?

What is so awesome about Kingsman is that it has all these old James Bond movies to build upon. What Matthew Vaughn did was he watched every single James Bond and spy movie ever made, and then he made this one. He cleverly avoids the famous clichés and makes fun of them while at the same time being a good spy movie. It’s a rule of thumb I have for all spoofs. If you’re going to spoof a genre, you still have to be a good film within the genre you are spoofing. Good examples of this are Young Frankenstein (1974) and Spaceballs (1986), two of Mel Brooks most famous spoofs. Young Frankenstein is a damn good Frankenstein movie (actually it was nominated for Best Screenplay in 1974) while still making fun of all those Frankenstein films that came before it. Young Frankenstein is such a good Frankenstein movie that it even surpasses many of the films it is spoofing. Same with Spaceballs, there’s no better Star Wars spoof out there. Funny, yet mindful to the type of film it is. And this is what Kingsman does so well. It takes all those elements you know and love from James Bond films and then twists them around and takes them to another level. If you are a fan of Bond movies, you will have a blast with Kingsman: The Secret Service. It’s always referencing some cliché from the Bond films. In this sense it reminds me William Dear’s If Looks Could Kill (1991), which was also about a teenager who turns into a super spy. It was also a lighthearted, fun film that poked fun at Bond movies, but trust me, Kingsman does it a million times better. Still, if you enjoy Kingsman, check out If Looks Could Kill (1991).

But aside from the spoof aspect of this film, as it turns out, it is also an extremely well written film saying a whole lot about the society we live in and what is wrong with it and boy, I wasn’t expecting this at all, but Kingsman: The Secret Service is one of the most subversive films I’ve seen in a while. It’s a film that sends a big ‘screw you’ to politics and religion. There’s an outstanding sequence that takes place inside of a Christian church that showcases everything that is wrong with religion today. What this story is saying is that politicians and religious leaders are total whackos, they just happen to be running the world, making all the wrong choices for all of us. How do you save the world from these madmen? By becoming a true gentleman, ridding the world of evil. I loved the message that the films puts across. It’s basically saying we can become something better, we can improve ourselves, we can do some good in the world. We have the potential, we just need to focus. It also speaks about the manipulation of the masses, and the control of how they perceive things. I can see why the film is rated ‘R’, it has profanity, nudity and subversive ideas. Its violence quotient is pretty high. It feels as if the filmmakers decided that if they we’re going to go with an ‘R’ rating, they were going to go all in. And that they did; which was awesome. It was so refreshing to see a film that wasn’t worrying about being politically correct.

Final words:  this movie turned out to be one of my favorite of the year; it was entertaining every step of the way. One of the biggest compliments it gets from me is that it was never boring. Not for a second. It brought back that fun element that modern James Bond movies lack. If you take a look at Bond films of today, they are currently on a ‘deadly serious’ phase, all the silly fun from the old movies has been sucked right out of that franchise.  And while I absolutely loved Sky Fall (2012), I miss the whacky element from the old ones, but don’t worry if you’ve been missing that sense of fun adventure from your spy movies, Kingsman: The Secret Service brings it all back.  So remember, what you guys have here is a film that’s very self conscious, it knows the cliché’s and staples of a good spy adventure and plays with them in innovative ways. And one more final note, the Matthew Vaughn’s direction on this one is top notch, his camera moves and angles, the over all direction of the film is truly fantastic. It’s dynamic, the camera angles are interesting, innovative. Case in point? The fights scenes on this movie are a blast! Really fun to watch! Now go see Kingsman: The Secret Service and have a blast, it just might blow your head into a million colorful pieces.

Rating:  5 out of 5  

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Title: The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Director: Christopher Nolan

Written By: Christopher and Jonathan Nolan

Cast: Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Matthew Modine, Cillian Murphy

Review:

The Dark Knight Rises is an event movie, the kind that comes along rarely, not only because of the excitement behind seeing this final installment of the film, but also because of the tragic events that surrounded the premiere of the film. As most of the world already knows, On July 20, 2012 in a Century 16 Cinema in Aurora Colorado, a psycho by the name of James Eagan Holmes entered a theater during the premiere of the film and while wearing a gas mask, threw a smoke bomb into the theater and started shooting randomly at people who where there simply to enjoy the latest installment of the Batman franchise. He managed to kill 12, and injure 58 others. What was he trying to say by doing this? What was his purpose? Did he hate movies or people going to see them in droves? Whatever was running around that guys head, he was seriously disturbed. Did he feel he was one of the villains in the Batman films? Did he not learn to differentiate between reality and fiction? Between entertainment and real life? Whatever the case, this disturbed individual probably had a half-baked idea of what he wanted to say swimming around his brains; all villains do.

James Eagan Holmes; getting what's coming to him

You see in films, the villain is commonly used as a way of pointing towards something that is seriously wrong in the world we live in, and the results that this ailment can bring upon society. Take for example ‘The Joker’ in Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008). In that film the character was angry at the importance that the world gives to money, and how the society we live in revolves around it. One scene has the joker burning a mountain of money simply to show how little he cares for it; and he burns it with gasoline, just to be poetic and comment on how oil and money are entwined in the world we live in. The Joker pitted people of Gotham against each other just to show that humanity is selfish, that in the end, all we really care about is ourselves. Villanous? Sure, but you have to admit the character is making a point. This guy who killed 12 people in the theater, what point was he trying to make? By telling the police he was The Joker, he’s saying that he saw himself as a villain trying to make a point. Was he commenting on societies obsession with movies and entertainment? Was he saying films blind us from reality? That we are not living our lives and instead we are wasting it in a movie theater? 

If that was his point, then he was wrong. Sure Hollywood can be shallow and is often times filled with empty spectacles, but The Dark Knight Rises was not one of those films. This film had a lot to say, it is in my humble opinion a very important film. Same as The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises says a lot about the way the world is NOW. Thematically speaking, The Dark Knight Rises is all about the class war, a very heated topic these days, considering how middle class in the world is quickly fading away. Currently, you are either ridiculously rich or obscenely poor and that’s the way the powerful like it. Through the dynamics between Batman and Bane the film speaks about the struggles of the working class, the oppressed and the ever going hatred for the dudes running Wall Street. The status quo of the world today shows us that it’s true, a part of humanity is selfish instead of giving. It thinks only of itself and not of the needy, the less fortunate. Sadly, the rich and powerful are not currently thinking about making this world a better place for everyone, they think about making it a better place for them, and how those who have less then them can serve them. These are the themes that The Dark Knight Rises tackles with great precision and assuredness. This film knows what it wants to talk about, and it says it very clearly, through its villain, Bane. So this isn’t just any stupid little comic book film, nope, this film is bombastic, epic; a mesmerizing film that  has important issues to adress.

Christopher Nolan in my opinion has made his best film to date with The Dark Knight Rises. Technically speaking, his films have always been top notch and this one is no exception, but what I loved the most about The Dark Knight Rises is how fleshed out the characters are. I was missing the time when great villains dominated a film, Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger are good examples of the kind of performance I like to see from a villain in a film; and I have to thank Nolan for making that special effort to build these memorable villains. Case in point: Tom Hardy’s Bane can now proudly stand next all those great villains of cinematic history. We hardly see Tom Hardy’s face in this film, save for a small flashback scene, his face remains hidden behind a mask for 99% of the films running time, yet Hardy’s performance shines through none the less. The character itself is extremely fleshed out, his back story is a very satisfying one. As a comic book fan, I was particularly thrilled to see moments from the storylines Knightfall, Knights End and No Mans Land on the screen.

DC Comics Batman # 497, one of the comics that inspired the storyline for The Dark Knight Rises. 

This is the third time Christian Bale has played Batman, I enjoyed how this time around he is a beaten, reclusive character, hiding away from the world in his mansion, like Mr. Kane in Orson Welle’s Citizen Kane (1941), the rich old guy who doesn’t want to answer to the world outside. It was great of the filmmakers to use the Bruce Wayne character to criticize the rich and powerful. If you have so much power, so much money, why not do something worthwhile with it, something that will improve humanity and the world we live in? Loved it how the movie tackled those themes through Bruce Wayne. It was a very intelligent move on the filmmaker’s side to comment on classist issues with the character, considering how the rich are viewed by the working class that’s struggling to get by on a day to day basis in this greedy world we live in. Anne Hathaway as Catwoman was somewhere between sexy and deadly, but nothing as overtly sexualized as Michelle Pfeiffer’s take on the character in Batman Returns (1992). The rest of the amazing cast does an amazing job, Michael Caine turns in an emotional performance on this one.

On the fun side of things the film delivers in spades. It was great to see a film that balanced action set pieces with story development so well; this really is a well though out picture, Mr. Nolan went up a couple of notches in my book with this one. Where the first two Nolan Bat films seemed a little on the talky side, this one balances fleshing out its characters and wowing us with amazing action and visual effects to perfection; kudos to Nolan for achieving that so well. So that’s it ladies and gents, I say don’t let the whole shooting thing scare you from seeing this one. It truly is a great film that touches up on important themes. This is an event picture, the kind you want to go to the theater to celebrate the fun of watching movies; don’t let the isolated incident with the crazy kook scare you out of that my friends! There was a special kind of electricity in the theater before and after the film started, people were genuinely excited to see this one. From what I can gather and from the resounding round of applause that I heard after the film was over, this one has won audience approval. The momentum these films have captured since the first film premiered has exploded on the screen with The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in Christopher Nolan’s Bat Saga; don’t let what that psycho did in Colorado scare you away from enjoying this awesome film.

Rating: 5 out of 5 

Oliver Stone's The Hand (1981)

Title: The Hand (1981)

Director/Writer: Oliver Stone (based on the novel by Marc Brandell)

Cast: Michael Caine

Review:

I was under the impression (as Im sure many of you are) that Oliver Stone's The Hand was Oliver Stone’s first feature film. It wasnt. Before making The Hand, he had directed yet another horror film about a horror writer who's stories come to life entitled Seizure. He'd also directed another Vietnam themed film called Last Year in Vietman, which was truly his first film ever. Unfortunately, neither of those films is available on DVD. But by this time, Oliver Stone was more of a writer. A writer who'd written a successful and award winning screenplay called Midnight Express (1978). But apparently his thirst for directing films never died. And as is the case with many directors who are just starting out in the business of making movies, he went with making horror films. I have to admit, I was extremely curious to see Oliver Stone handling a horror film since the guy is primarily known for making films dealing with political/social issues. But hey, Kubrick did a horror film. Heck, Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg all took at stab at horror as well. And strange as it is to say it, Oliver Stone did a couple of horror films as well. I find it kind of odd because horror is not the first word that comes to mind when you think of an Oliver Stone film, he tends to focus more on real life terrors then the kind of things we see in most horror films. But still, I was intrigued. How did The Hand turn out?

Stan Winston handled the special effects of the disembodied hand moving about

The Hand is about a cartoonist named Jonathan Lansdale. He has a very successful cartoon strip on various news papers around the world. He is very full of himself, he has a beautiful house, a daughter, a beautiful wife who by the way is bored with their relationship. She wants a breath of fresh air in her life, basically, she wants to go out on her own in the world and be her own person, independent of her husband which of course is something completely understandable. Lansdale on the other hand does not take these news very well, in fact, he takes it as if his wife is trying to get rid of him. As if she doesn’t love him anymore. In the middle of the discussion (which they are having while driving a car) the wife doesn’t see a truck coming along and she swerves the wrong way and Lansdale’s hand gets chopped off by the passing car! Unfortunately, that was his drawing hand! So now he can no longer draw his comic strip! Basically, he has been stripped of his talent! Of what he uses to pay the bills! What’s Lansdale to do now?

Stone going over a scene with Caine and the child actress who played his daughter

I expect good things from Oliver Stone every time I go into one of his films. Every now and then we get the odd film (like U-Turn) but most of the time, he doesn’t disappoint, which is why I went in with a positive attitude towards this film. But with a title like “The Hand” one tends to think this will be a silly horror film about a hand that kills, which couldn’t be further from the truth! Images of Bruce Campbell battling his own hand in Evil Dead II will no doubt pop to mind. But The Hand is actually an extremely satisfying psychological thriller. The themes at the core of the film are very interesting ones, and perhaps not exactly the kind of themes we’d expect from a horror film. But there they are. Essentially, the film deals with the power struggle between men and women in relationships.

Should men dominate women’s lives and treat them like their own personal slaves? Should a woman simply be a house wife and nothing else? I found it very interesting that the filmmakers chose the theme of “the hand” to tell this kind of story because the hand is often times a symbol of power, of control. When we hold something in our grasp, we tend to think of the thing as ours, and that’s basically how Lansdale saw his wife on this film. As a pretty object that he could control, a beautiful thing he could look at after long hours of work. What we have on this film is a character that is full of himself; he thinks life revolves around him and his work, and his wife is simply around for the ride. But what happens when the wife wants to take her own ride?

Electro schock therapy will do strange things to a mans hair

It’s interesting that I decided to watch this film and Sam Mendes’s Revolutionary Road (2008) one after another because they both deal with the exact same subject matter. Women who are dissatisfied and bored with their role as housewife. They want to live their lives and be free as opposed to staying home, and keeping everything nice and tidy for her hubby. Pampering the male; doing everything for him. Same as Revolutionary Road, this movie criticizes that type of life style and essentially says: if you are not happy that way, then don’t be that way! If that is not what you want, then do make your life into that. Go out there and live your life. I am not against the idea of a housewife, I mean, there are people who are happy living that way. Once they get there, they are happy to take care of the house hold while the husband is in charge of bringing home the bacon so to speak. I mean, some people are happy with that life. But others simply aren’t, other women want more out of life then that, and unfortunately they discover it once they are already living it. In my opinion we should all be free to choose the path our lives go, including women. And the man who can’t understand that, well, he is simply wrong. We all have the right to live our lives and do as we please with it. If we want to see more, then it’s entirely within our rights to do so.

I have to say that The Hand is one of Oliver Stone’s most underrated films. It’s extremely well shot (as are most of Oliver Stone’s films) and actually manages to capture a dreadful atmosphere in some areas. Especially when Lansdale decides to live isolated in a Cabin in the middle of nowhere. Speaking of isolation, this movie has a lot in common with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shinning (1980) which came out just one year before The Hand, Oliver Stone himself compares his film with Kubrick’s during the films audio commentary which I urge any of you out there to listen to if your interested in hearing how the mind of one of our generations greatest filmmakers works. We have a crazy dad, starting to hate his life. He has a daughter, scares his wife with his violent outbursts and ends up isolated in the middle of nowhere, going completely bonkers. I myself couldn’t help and think of Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duvall while watching The Hand.

Kudo’s go out to Michael Caine who plays his character with amazing intensity and insanity. Caine has said that he simply made this movie so he could give a down payment for his new home, or something along those lines, but you’d never know it by watching this movie! To me it was an excellent performance from Caine. It didn’t seem to me like he was phoning this performance in at all. He plays a possessive man, who doesn’t know how to deal with the fact that you cannot control women like a puppet, women are meant to be free, same as everyone. He learns this on various occasions during the film, and on both occasions he reacts violently. Where is the horror in this film you say? Well, the horror comes when Lansdale looses his hand! They try to recover it after the accident, but the hand is simply nowhere to be seen! Is Lansdale’s hand mysteriously possessed by some supernatural force that motivates it to kill people? Not gonna say anymore because I don’t want to spoil it for you guys who haven’t seen it. I was surprised by this film and would definitely recommend it to any fan of Oliver Stone films, and to fans of a good suspense, a good thriller, cause this one my friends is a very well crafted one.

Rating: 5 out of 5