KINGSMAN

Somewhere close to the halfway point in the movie two characters in Kingsman have a conversation about spy movies. They have the same opinion; ‘they are far too serious these days’. The ‘good old Bond movies’ with the megalomaniac villain, improbable stunts and cool gadgets is what both of them like. Kingsman is the answer to their prayers. Ever since Daniel Craig became Bond and Matt Damon became Bourne, we’ve not had real spy movies that have a ‘fun’ factor in them. Both Craig and Damon have done good things with their characters, but we always wanted to go back to the old days one more time. Kingsman is a tribute to the golden era of Bond, and contains a bit of many many movies we love, and some that we may not love as much. You can detect traces of Men in Black, tributes to Bond, references to Bourne and one might say a bit of Spy Kids too.

The premise is pretty much familiar. A young man gets the opportunity of his life when he is asked to

appear for the ‘most dangerous’ job interview on earth. That portion, which comes after a few escapades of the promising but wayward young man, is perhaps the most serious part of the movie. There are six young people who want to become ‘Lancelot’ and only one of them can be. The tests and the way the young people respond to them are interesting to watch. It shows that sometimes what matters more is not one’s intelligence but the willingness to stick with others through thick and thin. You’ll enjoy the skydive portion. One only wonders why the three men who were also in contention to be Lancelot had to be portrayed as such complete assholes. We hear something about ‘positive discrimination’, but it seems a bit unfounded.

In parallel, opens the ‘megalomaniac’ plot. Now, he has a plan that is one of the most devious and outrageous ones that we have seen in recent times. Something like the ‘end of the world’ schemes that we used to get in the old Superman movies. Does our young man get to be Lancelot, and how the plan of the megalomaniac is foiled is what Kingsman is all about.

The one weakness you can spot about Kingsman is that it seems sometimes to be stuck in tow minds. Does it want to be Bond or does it want to be MIB? You get mixed signals, not knowing when to take the movie seriously and when not to. You are caught by surprise when the first serious twist arrives because you aren’t expecting it. But, the script oscillates between being serious and being fun, which keeps you smiling, but can be an irritant for some very serious audiences.

The good thing however is that Kingsman never slows down. The script is always moving ahead fast. You really do not get time to think, even though there are many convenient liberties taken through the course of the film and gadgets for all purposes seem to pop out from nowhere like an ‘amnesia-inducing’ injection from a watch (maybe a nod to the ‘flashy thing’ from MIB), bulletproof umbrellas and transmitter fitted top hats (that the megalomaniac wears when he is sitting inside a private jet!). These gadgets, however far fetched they may seem, are fun to watch and take us back to the old Bond times.

There are a couple of fights that take violence to a whole new level of gore. The mood of the movie

never really sets us up for this which is the reason you will be surprised when it actually happens. But the movie keeps injecting wit here and there to keep you in a pleasant mood rather than a tense one. There is one notable deviation from the old Bond films however. As a conversation goes, ‘this is the point where I tell you my big convoluted plan, and then you find an equally convoluted way to escape, just like in the old movies’. But no, ‘this is not that kind of movie bruv’! You’ll love that twist.

Kingsman is fun because of what the senior Lancelot said so rightly; ‘I felt the old Bond movies were only as good as their villain’. Samuel Jackson plays a quirky self-righteous environmentalist who thinks he is Noah, trying to save the world, only he’s got it all wrong. Without him, Kingsman would have ended up as the senior version of Spy Kids. Colin Firth is his classy self, and its nice to see him in some frenetic action. Michael Caine effortlessly stamps class with just a few dialogues and Mark Strong delivers a quite understated performance that has some witty lines. Taron Egert is a promising young talent.

Kingsman makes you feel you’ve had a good time. Yes, it never stops once it gets into top gear. It’s fun, has an outlandish plot, some no holds barred action, a spectacle of blown up heads, a femme ‘blade runner’ fatale, a climax that might remind you of Mr. India and then a finish on a funny/sensuous note that is a tribute to Bond. Go for Kingsman; it may not all make sense, but it surely is a whole lot of fun. This one deserves a sequel!

Verdict: A thorough joyride!

Stars: 3/5

INTERSTELLAR : Nolan masterstroke!

When Christopher Nolan makes a movie, you wait for it with great interest. He has never disappointed, never failed to intrigue and never failed to give you goosebumps with the way he finishes a movie. He is one of the most, if not the best, talented storytellers of our times. And he has invented new levels of complexity in storytelling every time he has made a film. Maybe the Dark Knight trilogy is the only time he really conformed to the accepted norms of making films for wide audiences. But, otherwise, he has always been one to break new ground with the sort of themes that he explores. Interstellar takes his experimental exploits to a whole new level.

In Interstellar  he weaves together concepts and emotions that can never be associated even in the wildest imaginations. He takes astrophysics, quantum mechanics, relativity, space-time distortions, black holes, worm holes, parallel dimensions, continuums, gravity and weaves them all into a deliciously complex narrative, and the thread that holds all these heavy concepts together into one solid story love, the love of a father for his daughter and his will to give her a good life.

We have seen movies about outer space, aliens, planets, apes, asteroids, comets, space expeditions,

satellites, space stations, and most recently space accidents, which Alfonso Cuaron so brilliantly told through Gravity. But, never has the science of outer space been taken so seriously in a movie. We are not talking jet propulsion and mechanics here, but quantum mechanics and relativity; the kind of stuff that Einstein and his peers like to deal with. It would have been a nightmare to conceive a script that has its foundations on these concepts, and yet Christopher Nolan (co written by Jonathan Nolan) manages to get through to audience about what he wants to convey. A brilliantly simple explanation about what a worm hole is all about is one such instant (now we all know what the worm hole from The Avengers might have been).

The premise is pretty straight and simple. Earth is no longer getting better for humans to live. The blight wants to take over the earth and so if man wants to survive he better look for other places. NASA, long shut down, or so the world thought, had detected an anomaly in space time a long time ago and believed that answers for a new home lay on the other side of the hole. Now, they have the clues that came from probes that they sent long ago, and they need a team to go in and make sure.

It is difficult to sum up what Interstellar is all about because it encompasses so much. Be it the relativity on the planet that takes 7 earth years for every hour, be it the sheer desperation of a scientist to live that made him let down his entire team, maybe entire humanity itself, the sacrifice of a robot and an astronaut to get to the heart of a black hole so that they can find the answers necessary to save humanity. And most importantly, how ever second in a girl’s room is captured and laid out as a huge array to space time so that she can one day learn the answers that will save humanity. It is, above all, how a father’s love makes him find a way back to his daughter, and how she finds a way out for humanity.

Interstellar is outlandishly imaginative, some times even difficult to believe, but Nolan does not leave anything unexplained (except who‘THEY’ are?) The foundations of his story and screenplay are laid

on the complex theories of physics that we have heard about but never really understood. Some of it might appear plain impossible (like how a man can survive a fall through a black hole), but most of it is possible, even though not probable. And, it is brilliantly visualized showing the stoic beauty of space and alien landscapes of planets that might be our homes in centuries to come. Even though it is touted as a space adventure, the pace and turning points of the script are never forced. In fact, Nolan spends almost the entire first hour setting up the premise, using nothing but drama and the father-daughter relation, before starting out on the interstellar adventure. That restraint shown in writing and making is the hallmark of a great film maker. That is not to say that Interstellar does not have its share of pop corn moments or melodrama; like the mobile docking of the ship to the station and the final meeting of father and daughter, but they are acceptable in an extremely well written piece that spans nearly 3 hours.

Interstellar is not one for passive viewing. It was written with much thought and it demands a similar effort from you while watching it. Looking at it as just another visual space adventure is a waste of time, as it gives you much to think about too, like how a scientist’s conscience might work in different situations, how time might just be another dimension in our universe which is there but cannot be seen, and about how love can sometimes be a compass that can guide us when all else seems lost. Interstellar demands you to travel with it, not be a mere spectator. And be sure, it is a journey worth taking. Its brilliantly complex writing and film making, which beautifully simplifies what many great scientists have meant over the decades.

And, yes Mathew Mc Conaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain are the lead cast, but the script overpowers their presence, and Matt Damon and Michael Caine turn out quite uncharacteristic to what they have done till now.

Interstellar: Don’t just watch – experience it

4/5