Do yourself a secret service

I confess. I always make the wrong jokes at the wrong times. I don’t understand why I can’t park in the handicapped spot. I’m the undisputed champion of accidentally offending people. The best compliment I’ve ever managed to come up with consisted of an expletive and “#flawless.” That being said, “Kingsman: The Secret Service” was all of my favorite things and more.It was like finally meeting another person who makes the same really messed up jokes that I do, except more elegantly, and with tea in hand. Not only do the film and I have the same sense of humor, “Kingsman” turns crass and crude humor into pure gold. With an albeit generic plot line, the film carries itself in an outlandish and unorthodox way with quirky details that end up defining the film. And just like a good old classic action movie, you grow through the struggles of the hero.Before I say anything else: Kingsman IS rated R. It’s violent and gutsy (literally), and there are some scenes that pop straight out of first person shooter games. Before you think any lesser of it: my mother thoroughly enjoyed the movie. My mother who likes classical music and cute cat videos, who told me to warn her before all the violent scenes, who couldn’t deal with “Django Unchained” because of all the blood in it, liked Kingsman.A quick overview of the plot: Gary Unwin, or “Eggsy” (Taron Egerton) is the son of Kingsman agent who was killed on a mission when Eggsy was still young. Left on their own, Eggsy and his mother struggle to make ends meet and she ends up in an abusive relationship, dependent on a man to support them. Eggsy picks up a delinquent lifestyle and lands himself in a tight spot with the police when he is bailed out of jail time by Gary Hart (Colin Firth), a secret spy for the Kingsman and colleague of Eggsy’s father. Hart convinces Eggsy to enter a “job interview” to become part of the Kingsman when things are thrown into a flux: Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), a megalomaniacal villain with a world domination plan, releases a weapon of mass destruction in order to control human overpopulation, as a free SIM card. Eggsy, caught in the middle of this plan, must try to save the world while those around him turn to Valentine’s side. The lives and allegiance of all are compromised.Right from the start of the movie, director Matthew Vaughn establishes a dynamic and almost comical filming style with close action shots on pivotal moments and occasional slo-mo. The fight scenes are accentuated with almost over dramatic sound effects. The sound of someone getting staked through the head is, like, a bajillion times more prominent than it would be if  it happened in real life (not that I know what that would sound like). Just like the humor, so many other aspects of Kingsman are so satisfyingly unreserved.Vaughn doesn’t hold back in the creativity element either, however. With a bullet-proof umbrella gun and a electrocution signet ring, the gadgets and tools used in the movie had me the most excited since Inspector Gadget. Although Kingsman is adapted from a 2012 comic, “The Secret Service”, by Mark Miller and Dave Gibbons, almost all the genders of the main characters are switched (a.k.a. more badass femme fatales!) and the plot line is fluffed up for the silver screen. All of the main cast is revamped with unique personalities and mannerisms that make them larger than life and more entertaining. Eggsy’s crass street humor compliments Hart’s witty British humor. Valentine has a lisp and can’t stand the sight of blood.Upon my second viewing of the movie,  I found there to be little cinematic details -- camera angles, scene cuts, and soundtrack choices that I didn’t notice before. One of the biggest signs that a movie is good, is that after the first couple times you see it, you still don’t have time to notice the technical ropings of the movie, or rather, the things that don’t have to be there to preserve the essence of the movie. So “Kingsman” doesn’t have some deep philosophical message to expound to the world? Doesn’t make it a bad movie to me.Although Kingsman doesn’t necessarily delve deep into one moral theme, it roughly covers a whole load of them. From putting up with his abusive stepdad, to getting by as an underdog in his neighborhood and in “Kingsman” training, Eggsy’s limits are tested just as much as he tests those that confine him. When Eggsy steals the keys to his stepdad’s lackey’s car to get a small degree of  revenge, I found myself internally cheering. And limit-testing is so very proverbially teenage. But limit testing as many of us may know, often leads to consequences, like no TV for a week, or being grounded, and this is where I think the movie does a beautiful thing. Amidst his training among posh contenders for the Kingsman position, Eggsy struggles with finding the will to try his hardest against kids who were born with the opportunities and resources that he’s never had. Hart’s character, as a development into Eggsy’s father figure, helps break the biggest limit of all: the idea that as Ernest Hemingway said, “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”