My favourite part about the kingsmen is how over the top the plot is. Reminding me of a classic bond film with an over the top megalomaniac with a convoluted plan to end the world and being stopped by a gentleman spy

The original Kingsman managed to make Colin Firth look cool and deadly. Not a small feat.

The death of Conrad completely caught me off guard and I was shocked for a bit. Also being a somewhat history buff, all the subtle nods that they did based on the real-life events that took place made me like the movie even more.

The Drinker stating the movie getting "historical events pretty much correct" is just hilarious. I wonder how many drinks it took to erase France from his memory... XD

The knife fight with the Germans in the no man’s land blew me away. Gritty, creepy, violent. The way they slowly crab crawled towards each other! Stark change between that and the Rasputin scene which was bright and beautiful and equally violent. Both akin to the kinetic church fight in the original

"Female Housekeeper, at a time when Women weren't even allowed to vote" Neither were MOST men --- that came in 1918 (Representation of the People Act 1918).

I liked how small the villain was because the movie made a point about how small things left unchecked can spiral into big problems and that's a really solid message.

I'm "an actual history buff" and I loved this movie. WW1 (and the events just prior) are fascinating and shaped the modern world we live in more than most people realize. Oxford was the epitome of a reluctant hero and Ralph Fiennes did an excellent job with the portrayal. The actor who played Edward, Nicholas and Wilhelm had me rolling.

The death of Conrad was a proper “subversion of expectations”.. because no one saw that coming in real time but if you saw the first one, in retrospect, it shouldn’t be surprising. Because Kingsmen was founded by lords and rich men who all lost their sons in the great war.

Anything that involves a secret agent fighting a ballet dancing swordsman to the tune of a classical orchestra is always going to be decent. Rasputin feels more like a Bond villain than the last few Bond villains did.

warning for anyone who hasn't watched it. spoilers . . >Spoilers . Conrad getting his head blown in was a fucking shock to me and i applaud the writers and directors for not being predictable. very impressive watch

Good lines are hard to come by in movies now, but I actually really appreciated the line: "Reputation is what people say about you. Character is what you are." Great message for today's day and age to remember.

They managed to introduce a "diverse" character into an early 20th century English period drama and gave us a credible reason for him being there.. Bravo.

Man, that fight scene with Rasputin was probably the most fun Ive had watching a movie in a while. It wasnt just good, more importantly, it was fun

I like how this movie was oddly historically accurate, with some creative liberties taken of course…But gavrilo princep did kill franz ferdidnand after originally failing until they accidentally took a wrong turn and stopped right in front of him. Also, all the kings of Europe were all cousins 😂. Rasputin was 100% a drug addicted sex machine that had a complete hold over the Russian Royal family because of his pseudo science “magic” healing of their son Tsarevich Alexei. And it is also a fact that Rasputin survived several assassination attempts in one night before finally dying, probably from drowning. Feel free to look this up all of it can be found in multiple history books and trusted fact based websites.

I just want to give a big thumbs up to the actor of Rasputin and the choregrapher of his fight scene. The actor looked and felt like a calm and collected madman when donning Rasputin's 'face' and it looked amazing. The fight scene is one of the most enchanting (Yes enchanting) fight scenes i've seen in years, its not a fight of brute force or technology versus technology like a lot of super hero movies do these days, It was a literal Dance of death as Rasputin spinned and twirled endlessly like a tornando in an attempt to kill Shola. It was really really cool. Too bad they killed off Rasputin so early, he'd have made for a more compelling Antagonist. Having him be the sheperd all along would have been cooler and would have flowed into the urban legend of Rasputin being 'unkillable'.

Honestly, what ruined the movie for me was to deal with the BBEG being a Scottish goat herder with a (understandable) grudge, manipulating world events through his illustrious cabinet of multinational henchmen from the top of a cliff. I mean, what gives him the power again to command the loyalty of all these people? Who tf is he at all? Is he super rich or some kind of super charismatic spiritual leader to command all these people and significant resources? Sorry, just couldn't suspend my disbelief hard enough to take that seriously.

That No Man's Land fight in the middle of the night is easily one of the best action sequences I've seen in awhile.

I actually gasped when Conrad died and got teary eyed. I think the movie really had a heart to it and a great action thrill Ride feeling. I give it a solid 8 out of 10

Djimon Hounsou is a GREAT actor, but he’s always “that guy” in big budget movies like Guardians of the Galaxy, Fast and Furious 6 or 7 idk, Tarzan, Captain Marvel, Shazam, etc…

I absolutely loved the hand-to-hand trench combat scene where they fight the Germans while looking for the intel. I've never seen anything that described the brutality of WW1 so vividly.

When your movie has Juba from Gladiator, some good stuff is probably going to happen.

Spoilers : My favourite part about this film was seeing Conrad to be a bad ass only to be brutalised and straight up murdered by a soldier on the same side. Really rammed home how much of a shit show war is

That one silent fight scene in the night between the trenches was one of the best I’ve seen

I enjoyed this film, it certainly went in a direction I didn't expect around half way through.

*Ngl I want more of these* historically centred Kingsman stories.. you could do a Political Action movie set in Russia around Stalin or a Japanese story centred around the emperor.

Conrad’s death was so shocking to me in a great way. A genuinely delicious plot twist rarely seen in modern movies.

I really enjoyed the way they weaved actually historical event into this movies, and Rasputin really stole the show

This is a franchise that I’d happily watch for several more years. It’s pretty much the only film franchise in the “swashbuckling” genre. Reminds me of the original The Mummy, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the good Bond films.

Oxford's quest to save King and Empire, and expressing relief that the British Crown didn't meet the same fate as it's mainland counterparts was surprisingly refreshing. Of course that's what that character's goals would be! Pretending any different would have been annoying and contrived. The WWI sequences, while stylized, were really well done, and the final battle with the villain was excellent.

I was struck at how accurate the history was, and that there was an actual representation of "Boer" Concentration camps that the British used. I have never ever seen an image of those on a film.

I also like how polly exclusively used guns in her fight scenes. She isn’t physically imposing like the other kingsmen, so she just shoots people

I loved it. As a history fanatic i enjoyed the movie's play on those events. Plus, the night fight in no man's land was one of the most badass scenes I've seen in a while.

2:47 Franz-Ferdinand wasn't the Austria-Hungarian Emperor- he was the Archduke and heir presumptive.

A while back, a professor in a journalism class gave his students an assignment: Come up with the most dramatic newspaper headline imaginable. Some of the entries: Alien Life Found on Mars Extraterrestrials Visit Earth Second Coming of Christ Confirmed Sun To Go Nova This Month, Destroying the Earth Killer Asteroid Strike Imminent Etc. etc. The winner? Archduke Franz Ferdinand Alive, World War Fought by Mistake Great review, Drinker!😁👍

This movie was surprisingly good. I half expected it to push “the message” like every other movie nowadays but it left wokeness aside and just told a good story.

looking back on the sequel, a prequel was probably a good idea. Accept the mistake and find a new avenue for a good concept, good strategy.

The best way to get someone to respect your work is to actually respect *_your_* work; The hacks who push "the message" don't care about their work, they only care about telling other people how bad they are for how they were born, or about giving each other self-righteous high-fives. It's a platform, to them. And what do you do with a platform? You stand on it. And no one respects the thing that sits under your heel.

My dad was home in PA from his winter retirement place in Naples Florida and although me and him are very different people… I’m more left leaning, him more right and we don’t share a lot of interests but, we do share a love of cars, WW1 and 2 movies and everything about them as my grand father fought in the Battle of the Bulge in the 778th tank Battalion, and just movies in general so him and I went to see this together and we we’re the only two people in the theatre and it was a really fun time with my dad. I really enjoyed the movie and hangin’ with my pops.

Honestly, the only part of this film I enjoyed was the Rasputin fight. The WW1 plot line felt like it was a waste of run time and killed the mood/tone/pacing of the film.

I’m surprised you didn’t have anything more to say about the Villain’s motivations, considering. Rasputin was easily the best part of this movie, love that absolute man.

Franz Ferdinand was not the Emperor. He was the Heir.

From a historical perspective, it wasn’t ridiculously off. I loved it when I was sitting in the theater with my brother, another history nerd, and the Rasputin fight was happening. He gets stabbed at one point and falls in water. I lean over to my brother and say “the only thing that killed Rasputin was a bullet.” To then watch him resurrect himself to get domed. I nearly died of shock due to a history fan dopamine overdose.

I ended up looking up a whole bunch of history because of this movie and was surprised at how true to it all it was! Obviously a bit of a passion project for the creator who paid a lot of attention to detail. It was also refreshing to see a movie taking place in this era at all which I don't think I had ever seen before. Thanks for the recommendation! Surprised at the critical score.

Honestly that one scene at night when they had to fight hand-to-hand so they wouldn't get shredded by machine gun fire was fucking mind-blowing

I watched this movie a week or so ago, and was bracing for “the message “ to pop up. I was pleasantly surprised by how good this movie was.

Rasputin was one of the coolest villans Ive seen in a recent movies but he got one fight and a couple cameos and that was it, it feels like they just wasted all that potential

Your reviews are so good that I've caught myself re-watching some of them recently. Not the movies. Your reviews. Thank you for your work.

Their dancing Rasputin made for an intriguing character with a memorable performance. Made me want to go refresh my memory on the historical facts and tales about him.

"a deranged billionaire wiping out most of the worlds population" that aged well

Just watched, really enjoyed. Spot on with your review. Wife and I bother laughed at your reaction to the 'big reveal'. Summed it up perfectly.

Best of the bunch IMO. The action wasn't JUST silly fun and the pacing was finally justified, you're building up to the eventual Kingsman formation. Would definitely watch a direct sequel to this one.

Ralph Fiennes in a Kingsman movie was such a blessing to watch. He was the perfect actor to lead this movie's cast

I was totally surprised with this movie, the trailers made it seem like a fish out of water comedy, but it was such a great dark comedy. It was fun, exciting, shocking, and emotional.

YOU know when you enter an upscale bar with shiny antiques on the walls, you may be in for a Kingsmen interview.

This series does a great job of almost being a parody of the Iconic Bond Tropes like Eccentric Villians like with Equally Eccentric Sidekicks,An Evil Lair in a diverse Beautiful location and Unique Gadgets,but then it takes it all seriously and commits to the ideas the set up. For some reason the Bond Films feel like they've gotten too serious while forgetting to have some fun. Moments I loved included the Night Time Trench Knife Fight scene,the Duels against Rasputin and the Shepard, and any scene with Shola,and man that Mid Credits stinger with Hitler honestly has left me more anticipated for the series going ahead.

I like how they took the phrase “manners maketh the man” from a bad guy. And this movie did have a chance to be a Tremors or Ant Man 1 type of movie surprise, but there are worse things this movie could have been. It was a fun movie for PPV.

You know I am a child of the 90's, I remember seeing the English Patient as a kid and being like man, whoever that guy is. He can ACT. And to this day, to this very day he has not let up one bit.

The silent fight seen between the allied and axis trenches was masterful. Fucking brilliant idea.

I really want to watch this movie now, almost entirely on the basis of your appraisal. Hats off drinker, you scholar!

i love how kingsmen kind of throws reality out the window and makes so many creative, fun gadgets and action sequences

I'll be honest, I came into the movie expecting it to be meh, I was just there to see the Rasputin fight. But man was I pleasantly surprised by the rest of the movie. It was so nice to see a movie just be a movie again. No forced political or social message forced down my throat. And just some nicely done action scenes.

Well thank you kind sir I didn’t think that I would wanna watch it but after hearing your review I will go and check it out! thanks again I enjoy your program a lot keep up the good work

Thoroughly enjoyed this film. Keep putting out these reviews Drinker. Cheers!

Agreed, though I would've preferred more Rasputin in the film. He chewed the scenery in basically every scene he was in and will be the most memorable bad guy from the shady cabal in the film.

The conrad twist was something i absolutely did NOT expect Also merlin with his sword looked soo badass

I really liked it. It's actually my favourite of the three. I liked the alternate-history angle, and I appreciated that it was a bit more serious and emotional than the previous movies, whilst keeping the cool OTT action.

I really enjoyed this film - it subverted my expectations in many ways, and I like war-themed historical fiction, especially if it is done right. Now, I did actually figure out who the villain was simply because he “died” off-screen, and that kind of took the oomph out of the reveal, though I have to say Matthew Goode is quite good at accents and so I didn’t suspect him before that. Also, I had to laugh when you mentioned the lack of historical knowledge of the general public. I still remember years ago my mum was watching that show Dancing with the Stars, and the host mentioned something or other about Napoleon to this celebrity teen, and she exclaimed “who’s that?”. It was one of the many instances that caused me to lose hope in humanity.

Saw the twist a mile away. Secretary gets "sick" and isn't in the room when the ship blows up? The Rasputin fight was fun to watch and the peak of the film for me.

"The idea of a secret cabal manipulating important political figures across Europe to trigger the first world war is the stuff of pure fantasy" That was just a really good joke...right Drinker?....RIGHT?!

The “silent” knife fight scene with conrad and the germans was intense! Loved that part 👌🏼

My teenage son is a serious nerd, which I say with the greatest of respect. Last year, in 8th grade, he wrote a book report on an 800+ page biography of Rasputin, in whom he had developed an interest whilst delving into why movies have the “Any resemblance to any person, living or dead” disclaimer. And, yeah, Rasputin figures prominent in that. So we caught him up with the first two movies, because he was interested when he saw the ads, and because of there’s one thing the boy loves in a movie, it’s a well choreographed fight scene, of which these movies are crammed full, because Wednesday night’s all right for fighting. 🙂. Anyway, turns out he knew more than the biography of Rasputin. He sat there in the theater, which was not too crowded on a weekday afternoon, and informed me as to which scenes were historically accurate and which were not. Turns out he’s very interested in WWI, as well. Beyond the obvious conspiracies silliness, it’s actually quite accurate, down to the manner in which Gavrilo Princip dispatched the Archduke. It was a lot of fun to see. It’s not as humorous as the first two, but it packs more of an emotional punch. More even than “Country Roads,” which we all sang in horrible accents.

this move had serious balls killing conrad it caught everyone in the theater off guard

It’s fun, like a “Discount” Bond Flick

The way this movie dealt with history drove me insane when I saw it. The secret group was supper stupid, the way the Zimmerman telegram was handled was wrong, and the fact that they made it seem like the war ended the second the US joined instead of a year later was infuriating.

The no mans land melee fight is incredible

After making Colin Firth into an action hero equal to Bond in the first film, Ralph Fiennes isn't much more of a stretch. My complaints about the film are pretty much the same. A plot that felt like two films instead of one, pacing issues, and a weak villain who's identity I copped after the first 20 or so minutes. That being said the film, while by no means perfect, I still would call good in spite of it's short comings, and that's thanks in large part to the writing of the Characters. Oxford especially. His development in the movie was well handled. And that midnight fight in No Man's Land was brutal.

Always great to see Raphe Fienes in anything. And considering how his role as ‘M’ was a bit underwhelming in ‘No time to die’ .. it’s terrific to see him kick ass and take names.

You saying eh summed up the big reveal so well like i was like “wait who was that again?”

I love how they tied in real events in the narrative. Stuff like the assassination of the arch Duke, for example, which really happened that randomly, lol.

King's Man was refreshing without all the current over politicization.

All the WW1 historical tie ins had me giggling like a schoolgirl and the Rasputin fight scene was just plain awesome. I watched it with my daughter and whether she liked it or not gave her a history lesson for each historical reference.

I'm really glad you liked it. I really liked it too - just stupid fun and very inventive putting a story around some unexplained events in an unbelievably rich period of history.

Kingsman movies have always been one of my favs to watch in a time like this.

Even thought I found it inferior compared to the first film, I found it throughly enjoyable and felt genuinely invested in the characters.

Thank you for filling my morning coffee with a bit of rational thinking in this muddled world. Cheers to you man.

Nice to know not every film franchise has ben ruined ... yet!

This was way better than I expected it to be i genuinely enjoyed it

Took me two sittings to finish this one. Tonal inconsistencies and pacing weighed on the creative/engaging fight scenes for me.

I don't get that a lot of people on social media crapped on this movie, it was a really fun alternative history ROMP. Sometimes a romp is all ya need.

Great review. I'm looking forward to seeing this movie.

Can't wait for your The Batman review!

I agree it's like two movies pulling in different directions but for me the two clash quite badly. It wants to say all this poignant stuff about the horrors of war and the pitfalls of patriotism while also indulging in over the top expressly comedic violence.

I don’t know, Gemma Arterton’s character felt like a complete Mary Sue to me. She’s better than cryptographers and good at fighting, has no flaws and yet comes off as arrogant and rude. And she did save incompetent male characters in Rasputin fight

The Wilfred Owen poem was a real nice touch to this film.

That night-time knife fight scene was really intense.. It surprised me considering how visceral it was compared to the rest of the movie.

Dude I was expecting the same as the other 2. This one got serious quick. Caught me off guard. Good flick but a bit heavy for what I sat for.

I liked it too, and was impressed at how much historical "accuracy" they put in. However, I was disappointed you couldn't sneak in a image of Klaus Schwab or Blair at the WEF when you said "secret cabal manipulating important political figures across Europe ... is the stuff of pure fantasy" :D

i hope this movie's box office results doesn't stop a studio from green lighting a sequel to this prequel. such a fun movie, that airplane scene was probably one of the most memorable sequences i've seen in a long long time

The person with glasses screaming into the air clip is my favorite.