“Kingsman: The Secret Service” is not at all what I expected. The distance between what I expected of “Kingsman” and what I actually experienced is easily among the greatest of such measurements.

“Kingsman” appears to be a film about a young man being trained as a super spy. While that is certainly true, the film’s style and scope far exceeded what I had assumed would be a mix between “The Tuxedo” and “Spy Kids.” The truth is closer to a mix of “Django Unchained” and a “Jay and Silent Bob” movie with perhaps a little “George of the Jungle” thrown in (which, by the way, was hysterical when it came out and is as equally hysterical today). “Kingsman” is self-referential, action-packed, justifiably R-rated and above all, a damned lot of fun.

This film is a love-letter to the fun of going to the movies. There’s far more true love in the globe-trotting adventures of “Kingsman” than there was in “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

5 of 6 stars