‘The Gentleman’s Guide’ from Kingsman
Posted: February 21, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Diplomacy, Entertainment | Tags: Colin Firth, Comic book, Fifty Shades of Grey, Film, Kick-Ass, Kingsman, Matthew Vaughn, The Gentleman's Guide, The Secret Service 1 Comment
According to “The Gentleman’s Guide” on the film’s official website, “The Rules” of a Kingsman Gentleman are as follows:
- A gentleman never tells about conquests, private matters, or dealings. His business is nobody else’s.
- A gentleman doesn’t clash in public with enemies or exes, or worse, with out-of-fashion contrasts, colors or styles.
- A gentleman is always happy to serve, whether it’s opening the door, picking up the bill, or merely calling a cab the next morning. Ask him for help and he cannot refuse.
- A gentleman never reacts to rudeness. He pretends he doesn’t recognize it and moves on like it never happened, because it never should have.
- A gentleman is always on target with witty remarks, interesting facts, and conversation starters that bring the best out of everyone.
- A gentleman asks non-invasive questions to keep a conversation going and attention focused on others. He makes them feel like the most interesting person he’s ever met, whether that’s true or not.
via Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) – Trivia – IMDb
Scott Mendelson: ‘Kingsman‘ Is Best 007 Homage Since ‘Austin Powers‘
Posted: January 28, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: 20th Century Fox, Colin Firth, Kick-Ass, Kingsman, Mark Millar, Mark Strong, Matthew Vaughn, Samuel L Jackson, The Secret Service, X-Men: First Class Leave a comment
Fox may have a new franchise on its hands with this witty and occasionally spectacular homage to 1970′s-era James Bond adventures.
Scott Mendelson writes: 20th Century Fox will be releasing Kingsman: The Secret Service starting in the UK beginning January 29th before eventually debuting in America and elsewhere on or around the February 13th. The film, directed by Matthew Vaughn and written by Vaughn and Jane Goldman, comes from Marv Films and Fox. I don’t have an exact budget for this one, but if I had to guess, I’d say over/under $40 million. At a glance, the initial tracking for the picture puts its domestic debut at $30m over the Presidents Day Weekend, which would be a fine score for this geek-friendly R-rated action romp. Especially considering that Fifty Shades of Grey (Universal/Comcast Corp.) will be sucking up all the media attention heading into the Valentine’s Day Weekend, a $30m debut weekend would be a big win for this comparatively under-the-radar picture.
If you had asked me a month ago, even after I saw the film, I would have worried that the picture was potentially going to fall victim to the Scott Pilgrim/Dredd disease, by which I mean a geek-friendly genre film plays great on the online movie blogger circuit but was mostly ignored by the general audiences.
“Consider this a warning. If you’re seeing Kingsman: The Secret Service, stop watching the trailers right here and now. You’ll thank me later.”
Heck, you could argue that Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, which like this film is an adaption of a Mark Millar comic book, suffered from the same fate, to the point where the R-rated cult comic book adaptation had to defend a “mere” $19 million debut weekend. But Lions Gate Entertainment’s Kick-Ass eventually made it to $96m worldwide and played well in post-theatrical, to the point where Universal/Comcast Corp. ended up with Kick-Ass 2, which earned just $60m worldwide in 2013. But I digress.
Point being, Colin Firth is a known entity without being an out-and-out box office star, and Samuel L. Jackson hasn’t been an automatic draw since, well, Lakeview Terrace and/or Jumper in 2008. Oh, he’s the king of the added-value element, and he darn-well should have won his Oscar for Django Unchained, but most of the cast (aside from Michael Caine and Mark Strong) are little-known kids. Read the rest of this entry »
pundit from another planet 