Kingsman: The Secret Service

[mupton]

Just got back from a screening! Found it very funny and charming.
Found the lead, Egerton, really fit as well Jealous of that Swedish princess.

Luckily we stayed when the names came up! Very funny scene a lot of people missed!

Was that the scene in the pub (the Black Prince in Kennington by the way)?

[TheBoySeggy]

Samuel L. Jackson's record of shouting in every film he's ever started in (that might not be true)... continues.

Enjoyable film once it eventually got switched on. Popcorn movie. Stupid in parts but always funny in a slapstick way.

[ajb7t]

Went this evening and yes it was really good and very funny. Well worth seeing

[vw182]

Also saw this tonight. Thought it was perfectly alright, something you'd watch on channel 5 on a sunday sort of thing! Although particularly good acting from Taron Egerton, i'm sure we'll see him lots more in the future. 6/10

[thanks]

overall I thought it was fantastic. It was like a comic book in its approach to violence so it wasn't gory at all, and it was really funny. I was thinking when I was watching it how I could recommend it for my teenage nephew. But then something happened. The female prisoner offered her body in order to be rescued. This isn't really very funny. And then she offered him the chance to go "up her backside". This is cringeworthy. And then there was a picture of her presented naked backside. It jarred in tone, to verge on pornography. So there is no way I can recommend this film to any male teen. And any young female, I'm not sure it would appeal to them really if they're watching with a partner.

[deepeecee]

Matthew Vaughn hedges his bets either in an effort to please everyone or to offset criticism. As a result the film has an edge of compromise- the violence is graphic so as not to seem sensationalised but stylised (very little blood) so as to avoid offence. The class system is both criticised and celebrated with the clothes almost a fetish.

[cdm22]

We went to see it last night too and thought it was excellent. The most fun film I have seen at the cinema in a long time. I do find it funny when people sit through a film where the bodycount is in the hundreds and the 'f-word' is used liberally but get offended at a 2 second shot of a bum, which I believe most people have one of themselves! (and yes, my girlfriend thought it was funny too btw!) Imdb has a few talking about the same bit, all very odd.

[AYBG]

The key word, as always, is consent. It would be an issue if the Swedish princess were forced into making a deal (but the scene didn't read like that at all) or if Merlin had watched (but he didn't).

As a feminist, I wonder if you're falling into the trap of criticising "sexualisation" of women, rather than recognising the importance of the representation of female sexuality (the repression of which has been The Big One in the suppression of women) and the healthiness of consensual shenanigans.

The scene is of course a throwback to the endings of the Bond films. Like Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, I'm fond of those movies and those books, but the character is (openly, in the latter) psychologically driven by his hatred of women. Kingsman doesn't tackle the misogyny, and the princess scene is pure pastiche, but it's updated to current sensibilities. Consider that, in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker we have instances of M watching Bond's copulation. In plenty of others, for instance Goldfinger (which is horrific, gender-wise), we have a character who doesn't give a damn about consent or even his victim's sexual orientation.

Yes, the male gaze is still in full effect, and yes it exists in Kingsman, but in my opinion, the most dangerous response would be to remove sexuality (or as you call it, "pornography") altogether, since women are then (by way of absence) given the old message of not being able to express their own desires, i.e. only being the object of desire for the privileged gender.

[D-Fens]

I also found that scene cringeworthy and in keeping with the uneven tone of the movie. It's supposed to be subversive and therefore shock so I'm not sure why there's a reaction against expressing that shock.

[Jayman]

The scene was uneven but what was especially odd for me was the choice of her words. ie.

Spoiler

Show

"asshole"

Subtlety would've gone a long way here.