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0000017c-60f7-de77-ad7e-f3f739cf0000Arts & More airs Fridays at 7:50 a.m. and 4:20 p.m.Theme music: "Like A Beginner Again" by Dan Barry of Seas of Jupiter

Kingsman: A Spy Film For Comic Lovers, But Not For Children

Last month, I attended a screening of Kingsman: The Secret Service and sat behind a mother and father who had brought with them a boy who appeared to be maybe six or seven years old.

Maybe they didn't realize the movie was rated R. Or perhaps some nasty usher had spread Krazy Glue on their seats just before they sat down. At any rate, neither Mom nor Dad flinched as their little boy witnessed dozens of stabbings, decapitations, exploding heads, fingers being shot off, faces being slashed, a trio of people impaled shish-kabob-style on a huge spear, a man being split right down the middle, et cetera.

But you will be reassured to know that both parents rushed to cover the little boy's eyes when a woman pulled down her lacy panties and showed off her bare bottom. Because, you know, nudity is really dirty and not something children need to see.

I mention this because it might be easy to mistake Kingsman for one of the Marvel Comics-inspired films that seem to pop up every four months or so. After all, it's based on a comic book and, like those Marvel extravaganzas, it has a star-studded cast and no shortage of action.

Keep in mind, however, that Kingsman comes from director Matthew Vaughn, who helped launch Daniel Craig to stardom in the brutal British crime drama Layer Cake and who wrote, produced and directed the raucous 2010 superhero spoof Kick-Ass, in which a then 13-year-old Chloe Grace Moretz racked up a shockingly high body count. 

Kingsman takes the wacky, way over-the-top attitude of Kick-Ass and mixes it with the swinging spirit of one of those mid-1960s James Bond knock-offs like Dean Martin's Matt Helm movies or James Coburn's In Like Flint. The result is not for the faint of heart - and it's definitely not for children.

Much of Kingsman is dedicated to the transformation of working-class tough-guy EggsyUnwin into a debonair, sharp-witted assassin. He's played by rising star TaronEgerton, a terrific young actor with rough-around-the-edges charisma.

References are made to My Fair Lady, but this is actually more like "My Fair Lethal Weapon," with Henry Higgins replaced by Harry Hart, a veteran of various secret wars and undercover operations. He's played to posh perfection by Colin Firth as a Guinness-drinking, thoroughbred clotheshorse who gives new meaning to the phrase "dressed to kill." It's hardly surprising that the Kingsman clan takes its name from a Savile Row tailor shop that serves as its homebase.

Harry and Eggsy are trying to take down Richmond Valentine, a telecommunications tycoon with a sinister plan to conquer the world through technology - in this case, using free cell phones to turn everyday people into easily manipulated zombies.

As Valentine, Samuel L. Jackson puts a kooky twist on every line, using a lisp that makes it sound as if his tongue was stung by a bee. His partner in crime is the glamorous Gazelle, played by Sofia Boutella: You can recognize her by her razor-sharp, stainless steel legs, which she uses to literally cut men down to size.

The action sequences here are generally brilliantly choreographed. The humor is sometimes a bit more hit and miss: There is a fine line between cheeky and cheesy and Kingsman occasionally crosses it, particularly near the very end. Happily, Firth, Jackson, Egerton and the consistently reliable Mark Strong keep the picture on track.

Vigorous, vicious and often very amusing, Kingsman supplies the same kind of outrageous fantasy for the fanboy crowd that 50 Shades of Grey provides for a lot of women. It can hardly be coincidental that both movies are opening the same weekend. So will it be handcuffs or fisticuffs? The choice is yours.

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