What I learnt from Kingsman

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This movie is what it is, and doesn't try to be anything more. It's silly, and it won't be winning any awards but I laughed a lot more than I thought I would, and it made me realise I'd probably watch Mark Strong in anything. It also made me want to watch Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy again...

However, it did have a couple of things that stuck with me.

1. Samuel L. Jackson is hilarious in this, and I can't remember him being funny before. I know he was funny in Pulp Fiction, but that was a different sort of funny...this is fabulously absurd.

2. There is an environmental theme in this film, and Jackson gives a speech where he says 'Money won't change this. The Politicians have buried their head in the sand and stood for nothing but re-election'. It sums up the current state of affairs pretty well - unless behaviour is changed, then no amount of money will fix the issue. Politicians have chosen to ignore this route for economic reasons, so as not to damage their chances of another term. And we will wear the cost of that sooner than we think.

3. There is a big speech which unfortunately I can't find on the internet but the gist was that Carbon emission trading was a red herring, and we are well past the point of paying for the problem to go away. We need to radically change our behaviour and take action. He has another speech where he refers to humans as a virus destroying the host...while obviously I don't agree with his plan, it did make me think about how much longer we can really dance around the issue.

4. For the record, China's Secret Service (from Wikipedia, I'm not a spy) is Ministry of State Security (MSS). I LOVED that bit!

5. Lastly, they quote Hemmingway, with these words to live by “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” That is worth striving for throughout life, whether you're a gentleman spy or not.

Linking up with #IMustConfess - I had planned to be on topic but got distracted. In short, I have an iPhone but I haven't drunk the Koolaid. I want to switch to Samsung because I drop my phones in the pool and the bath. I just need it to be small enough to fit in my tiny evening bags (for babysitter txting) and I need the energy to be bothered learning a new phone...