20 Spy Movies You Must See Before You Die

20. Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

The spy film is ripe for parody, which is what made Matthew Vaughn's relentlessly entertaining spoof, Kingsman: The Secret Service, feel so apt. At a time when the genre had started to take itself way too seriously, it felt necessary.

Kingsman mostly sets out to ridicule all things 007, but what makes it truly great is the depth of its characters. Main hero Eggsy, played by Taron Egerton, is stuck on a council estate and living a life of petty crime when he's plucked out of obscurity by Colin Firth's immaculate secret agent Harry Hart. Their dynamic is one of father and son, and the pair share genuine chemistry.

This is a fish out of water tale in the best possible sense, with the most entertaining scenes coming in the first half as Eggsy learns the ways of the Kingsman and trains to become an agent, before ultimately coming face to face with Sam Jackson's hammy villain.

This film, much like Kick-Ass, was followed by a disappointing sequel, but it's not enough to spoil the original's charm. It hits all the right notes until the very last scene, where a joke about anal sex feels like something taken from 2003. Given how much fun the film is, however, and how awesome the set-pieces, characters, and meta jokes are, it's an easy mistake to forgive.