‘The King’s Man’ movie review: Origin story lacks that secret sauce
The Hindu
Matthew Vaughn’s prequel describing the origins of the super-secret intelligence agency, is unfortunately not as much fun as the earlier two films in the franchise
Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service in 2014, based on Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons’ comic book The Secret Service, was a jolly, revisionist take on spy movies and James Bond. The suits, demented sidekick, gadgets, puns and megalomaniac villain (Samuel L Jackson was hilarious as tech guru Valentine) with a mind-blowing (pun intended) plan to take over the world was unbridled fun.
The sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), was more of the same with Julianne Moore filling Jackson’s manic boots. The King’s Man, a prequel describing the origins of the super-secret intelligence agency, is unfortunately not as much fun as the other two films.
While featuring an ensemble cast, bizarre villains and sufficiently high stakes, the uneven tone proves its undoing, veering as it does wildly between pathos and bathos. It also takes time to hit its stride.

In a few days, there would be a burst of greetings. They would resonate with different wavelengths of emotion and effort. Simple and insincere. Simple but sincere. Complex yet insincere. Complex and sincere. That last category would encompass physical greeting cards that come at some price to the sender, the cost more hidden than revealed. These are customised and handcrafted cards; if the reader fancies sending them when 2026 dawns, they might want to pick the brains of these two residents of Chennai, one a corporate professional and the other yet to outgrow the school uniform

‘Pharma’ series review: Despite strong performances and solid premise, the narrative misses the mark
Pharma offers strong performances but falters in storytelling, making it a passable watch despite its intriguing premise.

The Kochi Biennale is evolving, better, I love it. There have been problems in the past but they it seems to have been ironed out. For me, the atmosphere, the fact of getting younger artists doing work, showing them, getting the involvement of the local people… it is the biggest asset, the People’s Biennale part of it. This Biennale has a great atmosphere and It is a feeling of having succeeded, everybody is feeling a sense of achievement… so that’s it is quite good!










