Taken from the comic book bt Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar, Kingsmen is all about what it takes to go from a commoner to one of the men on her majesty’s secret service. If anything, this is one of the rare comic book movies that improves upon its source material.

Matthew Vaughn (Stardust, Layer Cake, Kick-Ass) does a great job with this film, making a better Bond film than Bond films.

Ever since a tragic mission in 1997, Harry Hart (Colin Firth) has felt like he owed the family of Lee Unwin — who died to save his life — something. He gave the family a number of they ever need him and seventeen years later, Eggsy — Lee’s son — calls him. As played by Taron Egerton, he becomes the true hero that the Kingsmen — a secret organization of spies devoted to protecting the United Kingdom — has been looking for.

He must also deal with Richmond Valentine (Samuel Jackson), a rich genius using free wireless to cut down the Earth’s population. He’s backed up by Gazelle (Sofia Boutella, Atomic Blonde), a killer with prosthetic legs.

Plus, Mark Strong is great as the handler Merlin and Michael Caine can be in as many spy movies as he’d like.

I love that the idea of this movie is pretty much how Terence Young turned  Sean Connery into James Bond. Millar said, “Young realized he had to turn Connery, this rough Edinburgh guy, into a gentleman, and before they started shooting the movie, he took him to his tailor, to his favorite restaurants, and basically taught him how to eat, talk, and dress like a gentleman spy.”

This movie made me so pleased because someone remembers how to make a Eurospy movie with style while not being overly referential to what came before.