by Spike Simmons

A few months ago I came across a trailer for a film entitled, Kingsman: The Secret Service. It featured British gentlemen in nice tuxes bouncing around and firing guns that were shaped like umbrellas, Samuel L. Jackson in bright clothing (muthaf#cka). Sounds like good fun, right? I had never heard about this so I started doing some research.

The inspiration for this new, slick spy movie was a Mark Millar comic book, simply titled, The Secret Service. In it, Jack is an agent for a top secret British spy organization. When Jack’s sister calls him about his nephew, Gary, about all the trouble making he’s involved in, Jack decides to put him to work. Meanwhile, Dr. James Arnold plans a to control peoples minds with the use of satellites. Needless to say, it’s up to Jack and Gary to stop Dr. Arnold. Sounds cool enough, yet vaguely familiar...I just can't remember where I've heard this story before...

The film is not a faithful recreation of the comic, it's only loosely based on the source material. In the comic, Jack and Gary are related and MI6 is the organization they work for. The movie has their "organization" as an independent international intelligence agency operating at the highest level of discretion, code-named "The Kingsman."

Here's a quick recap of the movie plot:

When Harry Hart’s partner is killed in action, he informs his widowed wife and his son, Eggsy (played by Taron Egerton). Years later, Hart (played by Colin Firth) then recruit’s the young man in their battle against the forces of evil. He must prove his worth in a contest to see who is the most worthy new agent, all the while getting to use high-tech gadgetry and weapons while trying to save the world from the forces of evil.

Kid: "How can you move so fast wearing a suit?"Firth: "I'm British, it's genetic. We can do everything in a 3 piece suit." — Kid: "How can you move so fast wearing a suit?"
Firth: "I'm British, it's genetic. We can do everything in a 3 piece suit."

The forces of evil in this case is a man named Valentine (played by Samuel L. Jackson). He's a philanthropist, and dressed in the oddest ensemble I’ve seen, who gives out free SIM cards to everyone in America. It turns out the SIM cards send signals to a person's brain, making them insanely violent. His plan is to let everyone in the world destroy each other to stop them from continuing any environmental wrongdoings. So he’s a GOOD bad guy…?

he's not saying it, but you know he's thinking 'muthaf*cka'

And then it hit me. The reason why this story sounds so familiar: it's essentially the same premise as Wanted: a guy gets recruited to work for a special organization that involves a lot of guns and fancy gadgets. It's a good premise, many an exciting action flick has been from that template but really? Same story for the same writer? Mr. Millar, you have your moments as a writer but you need to come up with some more ideas. Then again, The Secret Service was illustrated by Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons. I guess if I had a chance to work with him, I’d just rehash an old idea myself. I can't say that I'll be the first in line to see this on Friday, but it may not be too bad.

Kingsman: The Secret Service comes on Friday, February 13th.