A review of the new movie “Kingsman: The Golden Circle”
The first outing for Kingsman, “The Secret Service” in 2015, was so successful that two years later it’s back, even more star-stunned and even more outrageous but just as action-packed and entertainingly over-the-top.
Taron Egerton as Eggsy Unwin is growing into the role and Colin Firth and Mark Strong are back (even though the former’s character was apparently killed off last time) while, thanks to the involvement of Statesman (the US equivalent of Kingsman), we now have a host of American stars, most notably Julianne Moore, who clearly loved her role as Poppy Adams, head of a truly massive drug operation, but also Jeff Bridges, Channing Tatum and Halle Berry (whom we are likely to see next time round in a more active role).
Throw in Elton John playing himself and you’d think that would a rich enough cast-list. But we also have Poppy Delevingne, older sister of the model Cara Delevingne, Emily Watson (Elsa Einstein in “Genius”), and Pedro Pascal (Oberyn Martell in “Game Of Thrones”).
From the opening fight sequence in a racing London cab, the action is furious and massively enhanced by CGI so that it all looks utterly fantastical. There’s a magical lasso, following in the path of a similar device in “Wonder Woman”, and some scary mechanical apparatus such as robot killer dogs and a giant meat grinder.
Four-letter expletives are commonplace, but the most offensive element is a scene at Glastonbury music festival involving a minature tracking device which surely goes beyond the bounds of decency even for the “Kingsman” franchise. But, perhaps not, because director of both movies Matthew Vaughn and his co-writer of both scripts Jane Goldman are obviously determined to see how far they can subvert the James Bond formula for a new, usually younger, audience. And it’s working …