I obviously did not know what this movie was about when I added it to our Netflix queue.

All I knew:

The name

It was about the British Secret Service

It had Colin Firth

Turns out, two of those three things are true.

The movie is not about the British Secret Service.

It’s part satire, part action adventure thriller, part gross out comedy, part live-action comic book, and if it wasn’t for Colin Firth, it would be a complete waste of time.

Actually, even with Mr. Firth, it’s a waste of time.

Basically, it’s about a group of elite spies in the UK. There’s a vacancy and several recruits are given the chance to make it onto the squad. Meanwhile, Samuel L. Jackson plays a media baron whose generous gift of free phones/data/new tech is really part of his plot to take over the world. Add implants that cause the person’s head to explode and that sums up his diabolical plan.

The movie starts out with some action and tension and sympathetic characters. But it quickly devolves into crass slapstick that tosses around the f-word when it doesn’t know what else to say or do. Then heads explode and it goes downhill from there.

Don’t bother with this one.