By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 1 hour ago

While the James Bond franchise historically utilized plenty of comedic elements, the sheer popularity of the Austin Powers movies made 007 go deadly serious for his more recent movies. It’s great fun watching Daniel Craig scowl and shoot his way through one brooding Bond movie after another, but it’s hard not to miss the days when this super spy franchise focused more on making us laugh than making us gasp. Fortunately, those who want cinematic spycraft with a decidedly adult sense of humor can get their fill by streaming Kingsman: The Secret Service on Hulu.

The plot of Kingsman: The Secret Service begins with a young man being recruited into a super-secret, super-elite British intelligence agency. Together with his recruiter (someone who worked with his father years ago), the young man must investigate a mysterious philanthropist who isn’t all that he seems. Unless these super spies can solve a global mystery and stop a nefarious plot, then a most unexpected supervillain will become the undisputed ruler of the entire world.

A Cast To Spy For

One reason why Kingsman: The Secret Service was such a major hit is that its cast was filled with big names, including Star Wars legend Mark Hamill as a brainy environmental scientist. The cast also includes Mark Strong (best known for 1917, though I liked him better in Shazam!) as the man responsible for training the next generation of secret agents. Samuel L. Jackson, meanwhile, is in rare form as a supervillain with a bold strategy for preventing global warming: killing as many people as he possibly can.

There are other great supporting actors, including Michael Caine (best known to genre fans for the Christoper Nolan Batman movies) as the big boss of our plucky spy heroes. But the real strength of Kingsman is the killer chemistry between Colin Firth (best known for A Single Man) and Taron Egerton (best known outside this franchise for playing Elton John in Rocketman). The younger man’s performance is all confident swagger, while the older man’s performance is all stylish suavity; they are a bit like what would happen if James Bond were split into two people, and both are equally compelling in equally charismatic (albeit wildly different) ways.

A New Spy Franchise Is Born

When Kingsman: The Secret Service first came out, it made a splash (no martinis required) at the box office, earning $414.4 million against a budget of about $81–94 million. It was successful enough to kickstart its own franchise, and this first film was followed by a sequel (Kingsman: The Golden Circle) and a prequel (The King’s Man). Unfortunately, the franchise got diminishing returns at the box office, so the planned King’s Man sequel (which would have dealt with the rise of Adolf Hitler) got canceled.

Few movies have disrupted the spy genre quite as much as Kingsman: The Secret Service, and critics enjoyed the change of pace. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a rating of 75 percent, with critics applauding director Matthew Vaughn for subverting all of the familiar James Bond tropes in such funny (and often freaky) ways. They also praised the movie for being such a fun, action-packed film that will leave audiences with a smile even bigger than 007’s bar tab.

James Bond, All Grown Up

As for me, I found Kingsman: The Secret Service to be even better than Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, two of director Matthew Vaughn’s finest films. While those movies both elevated the superhero genre in different ways, Kingsman goes the extra mile, effectively transforming an entirely different genre into something slicker and more accessible to modern audiences. It’s not just a great movie; instead, it’s a film that highlights how silly most James Bond movies are by giving us a spy movie with decidedly adult sensibilities, including a hilariously mature sense of humor.

Will you agree that Kingsman: The Secret Service is a raunchy, crowd-pleasing update on the tired spy genre, or would you rather put on a Bond film than watch this action comedy all the way to the end? You don’t have to put on your shoes (Oxfords, not Brogues!) to find out; all you have to do is grab your remote and stream it on Hulu. Trust me: you’re going to want to watch the church scene again and again, but only after you get your jaw off the ground!