Kingsman: The Secret Service presents actor Colin Firth as a killing machine

MOVIE REVIEW: The refreshingly reckless Kingsman: The Secret Service is the perfect antidote to all so oh-so-serious Oscars dramas out right now.

Kingsman: The Secret Service (MA15+)

Director: Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass)

Starring: Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong, Michael Caine.

Rating: ***1/2

This spy’s the limit

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The timing for Kingsman: The Secret Service could not be any more perfect.

Right now, the market is flooded with honourably hard-headed biopics and sundry super-serious fare with one eye on the Oscars.

If fatigue is setting in, this cleverly calculated combo of action, thrills and comedy will serve as the reckless refresher you know you need.

One signature scene sells the Kingsman concept to any and all willing takers.

There’s Colin Firth, dressed to the nines in an immaculate Saville Row suit, bolting shut the doors of a grotty London pub.

Colin Firth is about to give these pub thugs some face time with the carpet in Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Two minutes later, every thuggish patron inside has been laid to waste by an astonishing burst of gracefully controlled fury. If you thought you’d never live to see the day where Colin Firth became a killing machine, it is time to think again.

However, the need to think at all is not an entry requirement of Kingsman: The Secret Service.

This clever, unpredictable and proudly disposable affair amounts to nothing less than the first genuinely exciting comic-book adaptation since the original Kick-Ass.

No surprise, then, to learn many of the key creatives behind Kick-Ass are also responsible for Kingsman in particular, filmmaker Matthew Vaughn, his regular writing partner Jane Goldman, and leading graphic novelist Mark Millar.

The title refers to an underground cabal of British super-spies, most of whom are getting on in years, but subscribe to the same devilishly debonair code of ethics associated with James Bond in his Sixties heyday.

Nice switch of pace ... Colin Firth in the movie Kingsman: The Secret Service.

With a need to inject some young blood into the ranks, key Kingsman agent Harry Hart (Colin Firth) recruits the son of a former colleague to join the organisation’s top-secret training scheme.

Eggsy (impressive newcomer Taron Egerton) is a rough-as-guts kid from a housing estate who in no way fits the usual Kingsman profile.

The midsection of the film chronicles Eggsy’s My Fair Lady-like transformation from bogan brawler to suave surveillance operative.

While these scenes drag on a bit, the mentor-student dynamic that develops between Harry and Eggsy — with additional input from the inscrutable training camp instructor Merlin (Mark Strong) — lays a solid foundation for a spectacularly frenetic final act.

Of course, a movie like this would be nothing without a mad master villain to keep redrawing the line between good and evil.

Appearances can be deceptive. A semmingly sedate Colin Firth is a classily-clad killing machine in Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Enter Samuel L. Jackson as Valentine, a psychopathic Steve Jobs-type tech tycoon who plots world domination with his sinister SIM-cards.

Proving the notion that behind every terrible man is a terrifying henchwoman comes Gazelle (Sofia Boutella), who sports a sharp set of flexi-blade prosthetic legs to carve up any opposition to Valentine’s scheme.

While it must be said that Kingsman: The Secret Service can get very hit-or-miss on occasion, the lively chemistry shared between an expertly-chosen cast (which also includes Michael Caine, and Star Wars icon Mark Hamill) never loses any of its power.

The sheer class and deceptive cunning Firth finds in the role of Harry also sustains intense interest at those moments where this (arguably unnecessarily) long film is taking its pedal off the metal.

However, when Kingsman is truly on target and proceedings appear to be gleefully spiralling out of control, the energy expended and electricity generated can take your breath away.

Originally published as Kingsman: The Secret Service presents actor Colin Firth as a killing machine