“Kingsman: The Secret Service” takes the intensity of an action blockbuster and mixes it with the integrity and charm that only the British can bring.

Academy Award winning actor Colin Firth is a member of the illustrious and secretive Kingsman, a branch of secret service akin to MI:6. He is tasked with the problem of recruiting a youthful but capable young man hanging with the wrong crowd. Firth sees the potential in him and trains him up to become a “gentlemen” who lives by the creed, “manners maketh man.”

Firth’s performance was stellar, as per usual, but I must applaud the acting of Taron Egerton, who I had not seen until now. Egerton plays the youthful Eggsy and, while he didn’t steal the scene at any point, he held his own in a film with some of the most prestigious actors of our time For that he deserves some credit.

Samuel L. Jackson also appears, playing the lisp-stricken villain Valentine. He wasn’t exactly the most threatening bad guy of all time, but he sure was entertaining.

The cinematography was also quite good. While the infamous rocking of shaky-cam is often used poorly, it was executed quite well here. It was not some trick the director of photography used to hide bad fight choreography, but instead added life and movement to each scene. Did the action need that? Probably not. But the cinematography brought a certain momentum that otherwise might not have existed.

The score was also quite good. It struck somewhere between James Bond and a superhero film, with sweeping heroic moments followed by low-key and humble orchestration.

Overall, “Kingsman: The Secret Service” is a sleeper-hit. It was a film that flew under the radar for some time and I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it was.

Give the film a shot, either in the theatre or after it’s Blu-ray release, and I guarantee it’ll make you want to put on a nice suit and start drinking tea.