Review | The King’s Man movie review: Ralph Fiennes plays action hero in old-fashioned spy adventure
- This prequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service takes the spy story back to the turn of the 20th century
- Fiennes shines as a swashbuckling action hero, while Rhys Ifans plays the mad monk Rasputin brilliantly
4/5 stars
Set in the early 20th century, The King’s Man does what its predecessors didn’t, throwing real-life events (the horrors of the first world war) and historical figures (Rasputin, Russian Tsar Nicholas II and more) into the melting pot to come up with a ripsnorting old-fashioned adventure.
Ralph Fiennes plays the Duke of Oxford, an adept agent who comes to induct his 17-year-old son Conrad (Harris Dickinson) into the fold, recalling the Colin Firth/Taron Egerton spy/protégé relationship from the original. Helping Oxford is the more-than-meets-the-eye maid Polly (Gemma Arterton) and manservant Shola (Djimon Hounsou).
The mission is to stop a group of high-ranking, havoc-causing maniacs led by a shadowy figure whose lair is high up on a mountaintop – the sort of impregnable fortress that you see in Sean Connery-era Bond.
