By Pierce Brenner

Rating: 4/5 Paws

When a spot in the Kingsman agency becomes vacant, agent Harry Hart aka Galahad (Colin Firth) recruits his deceased friend’s son “Eggsy” (Taron Egerton) to become an applicant for the job. Meanwhile, off-kilter billionaire Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) attracts the attention of Hart when it looks like he’s up to no good.

I’m a huge fan of Matthew Vaughn. So far, he directed Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class. They were all great movies that deserve all the praise they got. To be honest, I was not looking forward to Kingsman very much. I thought the first trailer was pretty bad, and even though the subsequent marketing improved, I was not completely sold. Fortunately, Kingsman was far from a bad film. In fact, it might be the best of the year so far.

When Colin Firth’s name is on the cast list, it tends to evoke images of romantic male leads or British royalty, not that of a spy. But I always maintained that if any part of Kingsman were going to work, it would be him. Sure enough, Colin Firth was awesome. He was completely believable as an intelligent, efficient spy. Not only that, he was a ruthless killing machine! It was pretty much a combination of all the incarnations of James Bond rolled into one character, and it worked perfectly.

Firth was not the only one that impresses. Pretty much all the actors were great in their respective roles. But the biggest surprise was Taron Egerton, playing our young protagonist “Eggsy” Unwin. I was worried about Egerton going into the film. In all the trailers, he looked like he would be the weak link. I could not have been more wrong. Egerton made a punk-like Eggsy a very endearing character, and seeing him live up to his potential was a really fun experience.

The action was so awesome. I knew Matthew Vaughn could do action. Kick-Ass was proof enough. But what he was able to put together here is on a whole new level. It’s not quite on par with something like John Wick, but it was really exciting nonetheless. On top of being a great action movie, Kingsman is also a great comedy. Whenever it tries to be funny, it passes with flying colors.

Not everything about Kingsman was great. I thought the CGI was pretty poor. I get that it was supposed to be ridiculous, but that’s no excuse for looking bad. There were some parts where the action was a little disorienting, but it usually sorted itself out in the end. As a sidetone, if you didn’t like Kick-Ass, you might not like Kingsman.

I was afraid that Kingsman might be Matthew Vaughn’s first miss, but I really misjudged it. In fact, it might be my most pleasant surprise in a long time. With a stellar cast, action and humor, what more could you ask for?