Gimme Firth

Even before the movie/casting was announced, I was never, ever going to see Fifty Shades of Grey. I didn't like the book, I didn't like the message it conveyed, and the media coverage labeling it "mommy porn" like sexuality in any form is something to be mocked or didn't actually exist prior to the book's release infuriated me. So I had enough baggage about this to know I wouldn't be able to watch the movie with any sense of objectivity.

But this was Valentine's Day weekend. I wanted to see something at the movies with my husband. In the end, it wasn't a difficult choice. 

We went and saw Kingsman: The Secret Service. 

I like Jamie Dornan (I have ever since he showed up on season one of Once Upon a Time), but there is nobody like Colin Firth. I adore him. He's talented, he's sexy, he's charming. Plus, he's the kind of actor who appeals to both men and women. My husband loves him, too. It was really a no-brainer.

If you haven't heard anything about it, Kingsman looks like a spy movie on the surface. Colin Firth plays "Galahad," a member of a super secret organization headed by "Arthur" played by Michael Caine. It's a throwback to the over-the-top silliness and style of early Bond movies combined with modern fun ala Kickass (which the makers of this also did) and Hot Fuzz. Alongside Firth is newcomer Taron Egerton, playing Eggsy, the son of the man who sacrificed himself to save Firth. Eggsy is a lower-class London young man who lands himself in trouble and calls the number Firth left him as a boy to help get him out of it. Firth sponsors him to become the newest member of their team, and then we get to watch Eggsy slowly discover himself as he undergoes the testing. During all this, megalomaniac/technological entrepreneur Samuel L. Jackson is kidnapping important people around the world who don't want to fall in line with whatever nefarious plan he's concocting.

That doesn't do it justice.

It's over the top. It's violent. It's slick. It's FUN. Firth plays the role straight, and yet, it's that sincerity that grounds the comic-book roots and presentation (it's based on a comic of the same name) and makes it so entertaining. Watching Firth take out a group of bullies in a pub without wrinkling his suit or breaking a sweat was something I didn't even know I needed, and yet it gave it to me in spades. It has a great supporting cast, from Mark Strong as Merlin (and he's not playing a bad guy, yay!) to Mark Hamill as the scientist that triggers interest in what Jackson is doing. 

It won't be to everybody's taste, but it was everything I could've asked for in a Valentine's date movie.