Yes, this is both the year of the spy and the year of the abbreviations. Except for Kingsman, where they spell it out for us. Currently in theaters, Kingsman: The Secret Service starts The Year of the Spy off with a bang. Based on a graphic and very violent comic book, KTSS pays homage to the TV spy series and the James Bond films.
KTSS is a gentlemen’s movie about gentlemen who privately run a super secret espionage organization to combat evil. The very select Kingsman members are well dressed, well mannered and armed to the teeth. And very, very deadly.
Colin Firth plays Harry Hart, the head of this elite organization, who recruits a talented, but unrefined, street kid into the agency’s competitive training program, just at the moment an international threat materializes; conceived by an evil genius, Valentine, played by Samuel L. Jackson. The backup cast is also a stellar and talented group. The film is full of fantastic action sequences and a lot of tongue in cheek humor. It is truly gruesome and comically violent.
On Aug. 14, Sony will probably release The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I say probably because the film was scheduled to open in 2014, then January, 2015, and now in August. U.N.C.L.E. stands for the United Network Command for Law Enforcement. Directed by Guy Ritchie, the movie is based on the TV series that ran from 1964 to 1968. Agent Henry Cavill (Superman’s most recent portrayer) plays Napoleon Solo (James Bond creator Ian Fleming also created the character of Napoleon Solo). Ilya Kuryakin is played by Armie Hammer, the Lone Ranger’s most recent masked man).
In the 60s series, the pair traveled the world to fight evil for a NY organization. The update stays in the 1960s, and the two team up, after initial friction, to stop a mysterious organization that’s arming the word’s worst players with nuclear weapons. No doubt the bad guys will turn out to be T.H.R.U.S.H.
The most anticipated spy film of the year, Spectre, opens Nov. 6, with Daniel Craig in his fourth outing as James Bond. Double Oscar winner Christoph Waltz plays the requisite mastermind of evil. This time Bond takes on the baddest of the bad organizations, the one we first encountered in Dr. No in 1962 (six years before Daniel Craig was born.) S.P.E.C.T.R.E., defined by the Dr., stands for Special Executive for Counter Intelligence, Terror, Revenge and Extortion. Now filming in England, Morocco, Austria (the snow scenes), Rome, Mexico City and Italy, Spectre promises plenty of new thrills and outstanding action sequences. This is the 24th Bond episode, likely to be followed by number 25. The star of film 46 in the series will not be born for another six years.
Kingsman Rated 3.5 out of 4.0 007‘s, 11 and 2. Only fans of the original U.N.C.L.E. TV show will understand 11 and 2.
U.N.C.L.E. and SPECTRE rated ?????????? Try and remember what these letters stand for. Good luck.