Movie Review – Kingsman: The Secret Service

Fun and Frolic

Probably one of the most fun filled movie which I’ve watched in recent times. And as I had no idea about it and it took me out of blue, it was even more terrific. Films like these are the reason that you watch cinema for. With ample amount of action, sarcasm and a convoluted storyline, it makes for a terrific watch. Especially if you had watched it in theatres, your joy would have knew no bounds.

The movie has a ‘Tropic Thunder’ kind of opening and reveals what kind of film it was going to be, right from the word go. So you can’t be mistaken for what you’re in for. But with time, it gets a slightly serious tone and it confuses you. It doesn’t last long though. As it’s not a regional film for me, the opening was even more interesting for me. When a professor is kidnapped and someone fights everyone in the room and delivers a punch dialogue about saving him, we tend to believe that he’s the hero but he gets killed in the same scene. That was a beauty. Because if I had either known about the cast or had known who were the big stars, the surprise factor wouldn’t have happened.

Harry Hart (Colin Firth) gives a medal engraved with an emergency assistance number to his agent’s son Eggsy (Taron Egerton). They both make a great mentor – kid combo. Especially Eggsy, an utterly charming individual. Plus the fact that it’s a reveal of an underground organization for the first half of the movie, makes it an interesting watch. It’s like those superhero’s first part where he gets to know about his powers. No matter how many films come and go, that part would always remain interesting. It’s the same here too.

As it’s an English film, obviously the place looks beautiful, everyone is a gentleman, except for the maverick psychopathic villain Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson). How cool does that tailor shop look, even without knowing anything about it. They celebrate their drinks and every time you see a frame with someone with alcohol in hand, it looks like picture perfect moment. Any of it could be made into a poster for either the drink, the suit or the shoes. It looks like a front page GQ ad.

The surprise factor of the movie was its suddenness. One major twist which I didn’t expect was the death of Harry. Just like Valentine says, “Well, it’s not one of those movies”. It really wasn’t. We don’t get much time to lament on the death of Harry. Plus we get another shock when Eggsy doesn’t get selected as Galahad. The final task felt like he did the right thing by not shooting the done. We’d have expected him to have got the title for able to empathize with a living being and give importance to any life. But again it’s not one of those movies so he doesn’t get the job. Anyways it doesn’t matter in the end as he comes out as true savior.

Another good thing about the movie was the friendship of Eggsy and Roxanne “Roxy” Morton (Sophie Cookson). It looked like they both would be a couple but Eggsy had other ideas. The climax wasn’t a total win-win as Valentine gets to his party sometime. The satellite scene was quite hilarious. With such stylish action sequences and a highly entertaining screenplay, it’s a movie worth its mettle.

Movie Review – The Imitation Game

Glory of a Hollywood blockbuster material

‘The Imitation Game’ is an example of what Hollywood is really good at. Take a fine piece of material, writers write, directors direct and actors act. And it’s not as simple as the sentence sounds. It’s a carefully analyzed success formula which fits the template to tee and in a positive way. Because in this way everyone does their own job and does it fine. Even if they’re not interested to give an extraordinary product, their monotony would bar them from doing silly mistakes, avoid over analyzing and give a quality product. This film and many as such with studio, writers, directors and actors who do their job respectively are the outcome of this extremely tried and tested formula.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays a character which he could have even if had been woken up from midnights sleep. He plays Alan Turing, an English genius mathematician and breaker of codes. The role looks just like an extension of Sherlock. And Mr. Cumberbatch has become the face of English actors. Any role which requires an intellectual look, bam you go got your man and he too does it with elan, no complaints on that. But wish as an actor he explores something else too in future, as its too early to comment that he’s being typecast.

The film is non linear and rightly so. We get to know about Alex Turing’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) through a series of flashback. Having seen in numerous films how all these brilliant minds works, its no different here too but its equally interesting like any other blockbuster with similar story. No matter how many times I try to analyze the film, the fact that how the studios churn out these blockbusters never cease to amaze me. Especially when comparing it to Indian cinema where they don’t even have a proper pulp material to woo the audience but only the actor’s fan to make it blockbusters, these stories are really interesting.

Any historical film would make for a great history lesson, especially for people interested in cinema and history and don’t know the latter. Not only is it a great time pass but a great lesson too. Wish this could be added to ‘message’ films category because I’m sure almost anyone who had watched would have gone on to Wikipedia to read about Turing’s history, know about the homosexual act in UK around that time and of course add one more piece of information to one’s already known second world war story. I say this because this is what exactly happens with me. And any wannabe would want to learn about it and show it off when the topic of world war comes next time. Even though choosing between the two wars as to which is interesting is a cruel thing to do. We can’t help but want more movies out of first World War so that we get to know better on that subject too.

Coming back to the film, its one interesting subject, it’s a great idea to have dug up the history, taken up the book and converted to screen. The direction is near perfect without any mistakes so that everyone could be glued to screen. Again, one has to appreciate the use of formula. Guess I’ve been saying it in every paragraph by now. And the thing with English movies is whenever we finish watching, for any writers it feels great to type, because of the love of language. And with a film like ‘The Imitation Game’ it gives a feel like you’re running the show, that you’re capable of something. The nice mean character could be you and something big is store for you. That kind of feel. And the English setting is an icing on the cake, who’d not loved to have ridden those cars in the shiny rainy streets and studied in the schools where the kids carry trunks. In fact, the image of Turner standing alone in the school looked beautiful than making me feel emotional because of the walls behind with an old school Victorian charm.

The performance of ‘The Imitation Game’ were top notch where we couldn’t single out a person specifically to give credit to. One interesting aspect that’s worth pondering about is the ethicality in what the British did with respect to the usage of Alexander. The way they used probability to determine who’ll live and who wouldn’t, looks like a devilish scheme on the outline. Even though called a logical move, as a mere mortal it fails to beat me as to how that is correct. I of course don’t have an answer, if asked, what else I’d have done, but it’d always be a thing to think about. And in the films prospect, as much as I loved the scene where Clarke (Keira Knightley) doesn’t give a damn about Turing’s homosexuality, the very next scene where he tells her that he has used her for cryptography skills wasn’t really consistent. As much as she knows that he couldn’t play with emotions, its silly that such a little thing led to their break up. Otherwise it’s just as fine a film could get.