Afterwards I had to check if, for example, Mata Hari seduced US president Woodrow Wilson. This did-it-happen? question holds the interest throughout what is otherwise just another well-made, well-acted spy caper.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 8, 2022

Tonally and thematically The King's Man is all over the place, in a way that lays bare the cynicism of Vaughn's own mission: to appear transgressive yet reassuringly conventional.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 6, 2022

The tone lurches awkwardly from sweeping colonial melodrama to grim battle epic, camp, pseudo-Bond caper and crass, unfunny farce.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 30, 2021

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.

| Dec 23, 2021

Part satire, part adventure, this prequel fails at both...

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 23, 2021

For the most part, though, the film has such a sloppy but fun narrative that one imagines the expansive cast...

| Dec 23, 2021

Fiennes is as charming as ever. But it's also hard not to wish he had a better movie than this to exhibit both his singular charisma and combat skills.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 23, 2021

A dumb bit of fun, a revisionist history of WWI told in a nimble, comic-book style.... Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) is deliciously over-the-top, albeit in a pretty spectacular way.

| Dec 22, 2021

Any movie that lists "Rasputin dance choreographer" in the credits deserves at least a look.

| Dec 22, 2021

A charismatic cast and occasionally entertaining piece of action choreography keep it from complete tedium, but this odd hybrid of war drama and patriotic action orgy never finds its groove.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 22, 2021

A dreary knock-off in period costume that doubles as an embarrassing work of wish fulfillment for anyone who just wishes Bond could be more overtly royalist.

| Dec 22, 2021

I honestly don't see how The King's Man isn't the final nail in this series' cinematic coffin.

| Original Score: 0.5/4 | Dec 22, 2021

All the broad humor of the original film is gone, replaced by clunky and often tasteless gags, and the attempts to extract pathos from genuine tragedies vary from tacky to insulting.

| Dec 22, 2021

History is just one big playpen for "The King's Man," but some games are less fun than others.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 22, 2021

It's hard to quit the "Kingsman" series, though they're seemingly trying to force us out.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 22, 2021

Don't let its handsome tailoring fool you; it's a mess.

| Original Score: D+ | Dec 21, 2021

Who could not give themselves over to a scene in which, as Rasputin, Rhys Ifans - the film's lethal secret weapon - duels balletically with the heroes to the strains of the 1812 overture?

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 21, 2021

Fiennes is elegant and charming throughout "King's Man," unflappable in the face of perils that would flap anybody else, but his light touch often seems to be in the wrong movie.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 21, 2021

While the loopy emphasis throughout on fine tailoring offers some amusement, as does the presence of some very feisty goats, this plays like a grudgingly completed job for hire for all involved.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 21, 2021

Vaughn's stylistic signature of balletic brutality is among the film's pleasures, although the narrative's hybrid tone - part academic, part acid trip - is not.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 21, 2021