Earlier this year I did a binge of Matthew Vaughn’s movies, and my main takeaway is that I am not a Matthew Vaughn fan. I don’t mind his action sequences, which are playfully artificial and colorful, often hyper-violent but in a silly, paint-splatter, balletic motion sort of way. But his cynical and sophomoric writing, plus his total abandonment of tonal coherence, are deeply grating.
Nonetheless, he is an important Hollywood creator, inasmuch as he keeps getting big budgets and making highly-marketed tentpoles. And Hollywood studios have bought into his brand: His embrace of the superhero-ification and de-grittification of action foreshadowed much of the last 15 years of tentpoles, including the MCU.
Here is my personal ranking of his eight films to date, with links to the full reviews and my “Is It Good?” rating.
8. The King’s Man (2021)
Is It Good? Not Good (2/8)
There’s a case to be made that The King’s Man is one of the worst movies of the decade, or at least the most tonally and narratively catastrophic. It’s a World War 1 film with all the grace and precision of a wooden roller coaster built in the ’60s (when spy movies like the kind this is riffing on were big). It preserves some watchability with a few wacky sequences, like the Rasputin dance fight, and a certain perverse unpredictability in just how dumb it is capable of going, but, boy, is this rough.
7. Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
Is It Good? Not Very Good (3/8)
The second Kingsman movie is a little bit worse than the first in almost every way, and the aggregate total is a sequel that’s a lot worse. It’s not devoid of fun — I can’t help but laugh at Vaughn’s increasing bitterness towards the USA, and I quite enjoy Julianne Moore’s take on a poisoned honey, aw-shucks Bond supervillain — but it’s such an ungainly film that repeatedly mistakes “more” for “better.”
6. Layer Cake (2004)
Is It Good? Nearly Good (4/8)
Vaughn started his career with a knockoff of Guy Ritchie, an early collaborator of his. This means Layer Cake is a knockoff of a Danny Boyle knockoff, so a Tarantino knockoff knockoff knockoff. A Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox. And that about sums up my feelings towards it — not bad, but deeply forgettable minus a breakout turn by Daniel Craig and a couple fun supporting characters. Layer Cake is also very uncharacteristic of Vaughn, not as cartoony or slick as his work would quickly become.
5. Argylle (2024)
Is It Good? Nearly Good (4/8)
It’s not good, but I don’t hate it, which puts me well above median in my appraisal of Argylle. The story is backbreakingly long and clunky, but not absent interesting ideas; nor, astonishingly, absent introspection. Some of the set pieces are goofy fun, and Sam Rockwell is the X-factor. If only they’d edited out an hour.
4. Kick-Ass (2010)
Is It Good? Nearly Good (4/8)
I gave Kick-Ass a mild thumbs down at review time, but I think I understand and appreciate it more having seen five Vaughn films since. I’m less taken aback by how it feels like multiple tonally-askew films smashed together (since all of Vaughn’s movies do), and thus more appreciative of the content within each of Kick-Ass’s blocky plot threads. It’s a fun comic book riff, though not quite as punk-rock as it sells itself. The real standout is the black comedy of the Nic Cage/Chloe Grace Moretz subplot. But even the teen sex farce bits aren’t horrible. I’m trusting my initial skepticism in this ranking, but I suspect this would hop to #3 or #2 on a rewatch.
3. Stardust (2007)
Is It Good? Good (5/8)
If you had guessed Matthew Vaughn’s second film after watching Layer Cake, I’m not sure CGI-heavy family fantasy movie would have been the obvious choice. But it worked out well for everyone: Vaughn got his big Hollywood career, and audiences got a solid little bit of imagination. It’s not artful or whimsical enough to whiff greatness, too glossy and shallow. But it’s solidly entertaining, clearly told, and buoyed by a terrific Michelle Pfeiffer as the villain.
2. Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)
Is It Good? Good (5/8)
The more-is-less sequel (#7), prequel (#8), and spinoff (#5) have tarnished its reputation a bit, but the first Kingsman is probably the purest distillation of the Matthew Vaughn ethos: Exhausting but quickly-moving plotting, joyful high energy, kinetic and low-grit violence, and wanton adolescent impishness in storytelling that toes up to parody without every crossing the line. It’s in service of an old-school Bond pastiche with a deliberate “Make Spies Fun Again” mission. I found it to be a bit tiring and try-hard overall (which really carries in my review), but still well-executed, terrifically cast, and a blast to watch. It launched Vaughn’s signature film franchise, but was his last real hit before the wheels came off the critical and box office returns.
1. X-Men: First Class (2011)
Is It Good? Very Good (6/8)
Vaughn’s X-Men reboot is the only one of his movies I like pretty much without reservation. The Mad Men-esque production details are retro fun, the cast is phenomenal (the one unifying strength across Vaughn’s filmography), and the use of superheroes is not strictly as pulp but as a heightened version of the human experience. The script is the dog’s breakfast, but when is that not the case on a Vaughn project? What matters is the film’s energy, its smooth flow, the strong character development for Lensherr and Xavier, and its ability to get us to care about its story. I only wish Vaughn could have pulled that last trick off in a few more of his films.
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