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The King's Man

The King's Man

2021

Matthew Vaughn

Ralph Fiennes, Harris Dickinson, Djimon Hounsou, Gemma Arterton ...

5.6

8,966

Thriller. Action. Comedy As a collection of history's worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them.

	Author	Review
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"The film oscillates, rather awkwardly, between grandiose cartoon heroics and a kind of dutiful flatness (...) “The King’s Man” is an origin story that feels like a reboot"	NEU
United Kingdom	Robbie Collin Telegraph	Matthew Vaughn's larky, vulgar Bond pastiche goes back in time to the First World War – and expects us to take it seriously (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEG
United Kingdom	Olly Richards Empire	"The combo of larky spy-romp, father-son drama, and revisionist history is too much for Vaughn to balance and the film struggles to find a consistent tone (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"There are spectacular set pieces and genuinely surprising twists (...) it is directed with great technical dash and ambition that many other British film-makers might well envy (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Johnny Oleksinski New York Post	"A depressing prequel (...) It's hard to quit the 'Kingsman' series, though they’re seemingly trying to force us out (...) Funereal, overlong film (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEG
United States	Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times	"Part satire, part adventure, prequel fails at both (…) Rating: ★½ (out of 4)"	NEG
United States	Helen O'Hara Time Out	"There’s enjoyment to be had in Matthew Vaughn’s latest slice of spy nonsense. He creates some fun action scenes (...) The problem is there’s enough of all that for perhaps a 90-minute film (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Vikram Murthi IndieWire	"Incoherent, Cynical, and Dull (...) Though it might seem like a self-consciously mature “Kingsman” film, rest assured, it’s not really grown-up at heart."	NEG
United States	Todd Gilchrist The Wrap	"If the original 'Kingsman' had a slightly uninspired but easy to digest premise 'The King’s Man' feels cobbled together from pieces from “1917” and the last few 'Mission: Impossible' films"	NEU
United States	Christian Holub Entertainment Weekly	"Not even Ralph Fiennes can save this misguided period piece (...) three years deep into a subpar franchise, Vaughn's initial promise seems lost in the mires of mediocrity"	NEG
United Kingdom	Fionnuala Halligan Screendaily	"The King’s Man is essentially an ode to the prowess of the great British Second Unit. All that effort, though, and technical know-how in the service of such a lacklustre spoof is a little depressing."	NEU
United States	Charles Bramesco The Playlist	"Super silly (...) A film that pays ample lip service to today's political correctness while tacitly clinging to a more reactionary mindset"	NEG
United States	Frank Scheck The Hollywood Reporter	"Public school teachers desperately attempting to interest their students in World War I could do worse than show them The King’s Man"	POS
United States	Ignatiy Vishnevetsky AV Club	"Tedious prequel The King’s Man lacks the violent fun of its spy-movie predecessors (...) it’s trying to have it both ways—to be stupid and clever at the same time, and coming across mostly as the former."	NEG
United States	Rosie Knight IGN	"A combination of the film's many tonal and narrative contradictions along with its wildly unexpected moments create a situation where it's hard to quantify how it works as a whole."	NEU
United States	Derek Smith Slant	"[Its] failure to even acknowledge Scottish grievances toward England is all in service of a regressive, distorted portrait of England as the moral compass (and police) of the world (…) Rating: ★ (out of 4)"	NEG
United States	Hoai-Tran Bui SlashFilm	"A Brutal And Bizarre War Movie (...) "The King's Man" can't shake the gross immaturity and sneakily conservative messaging of the franchise."	NEU
Canada	Mel Valentin Screen Anarchy	"An unnecessary prequel to a redundant sequel, [it] delivers absurdity, excess and ultra-violence, while doubling up as an uncritical, unironic defense of the British Empire and everything it stood for"	NEG
Canada	Molly Freeman Screen Rant	"A joyless prequel (...) Neither a good entry in the 'Kingsman' franchise nor a particularly enjoyable action movie in its own right (…) Rating: ★½ (out of 5)"	NEG
United States	Mark Olsen Los Angeles Times	"With other 'Kingsman'-related projects in the works, it is downright diabolical for Vaughn to make audiences even imagine a sequel to this unnecessary prequel simply to see if can be as outlandish as promised"	NEG

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