The King's Man

"We are the first independent intelligence agency. Refined but brutal, civilized but merciless." - Orlando Oxford

release year: 2021
genre: spy action
viewing setting: home Bluray 3/5/22

synopsis: In the early days of the 20th century, a group of hero-spies forms to combat the efforts of a similar group of evildoers who want to shape world events.

impressions: This dealt with the genesis of the Kingsman organization from the first film and really did a great job of weaving its story into the landscape of the WWI era of the late 1910s. Among other characters, it featured Rasputin, Mata Hari, and numerous European royalty and American rulers. Early on, it was fairly tame, but then graduated to plenty of profanity and violence.

acting: Ralph Fiennes is the rich noble who must work past his personal losses to help keep the world safe. Gemma Atherton is his maid, who's much more than a maid and is indispensable to his work. Same for Djimon Hounsou, his butler who's handy with a sword. Harris Dickinson is his idealistic son who wants nothing more than to go out into the world and fight for his country. On the villain side, we have among others Rhys Ifans as a vulgar, nearly-unstoppable Rasputin, Valerie Pachner as exotic spy Mata Hari, Daniel Bruhl as an evildoer imbedded deep in the German monarchy, and Olivier Richters as a gigantic brute of a guard.

final word: This is good fun, and a strong complementary piece to the first two movies.

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