Title: Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Genre: Action & Adventure, Comedy
Directed By: Matthew Vaughn
Written By: Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn
Casts: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Halle Berry, Elton John, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges
Released date : Sep 22, 2017
Running Time: 2h 21mins
Studio: 20th Century Fox
While 2014's The kingsman: The secret service blew my mind away, it's current sequel just didn't thrill me. Yeah it's crazy but it the serial s are downsized. With all the agents gone in the previous series, not just gone, blown into pieces leaving new recruit, Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton) and the merlin (Mark Strong) the organization's IT wizard, one could conclude that it's the end of the career of the duo but the world they live in still needs saving.
Just in case you don't know, the kingsman is a high class London clothier that runs a secret spy organization that is dedicated to fighting the bad guys. In the previous sequel, Secret Service, the agents were killed, leaving a new recruit Egsy and the IT wizard, Merlin. Apparently, one of the bad guys survived when Egsy eliminated his bosses, Charlie Hesketh (Edward Holcroft) he was also a kingsman reject and in this sequel he came back for revenge with a gigantic robot hand. Only this time, he didn't come alone, as he is working with Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore), a wealthy drug dealer and a psychopath that ran the a drug cartel called the Golden Circle.
Poppy started her attack on the kingsmen by hacking their database and blowing up whatever that is left of them but Egsy survived, luckily, he went to dine with his girlfriend's princess Tilde (Hannah Alstrom) parents. Luck was also on Merlin side as his address was not on the database as the other agents, so his house was spared. The duo decided to go have a drink and mourn their dead, while drowning on a bottle of whiskey "Statesman", Egsy found a lead that led them to another secret agency in the United States called Statesman. The duo head over to Ketuncky to meet them.
Meanwhile, Poppy in her bid to legalise her products, decided to infect her customers thereby endangering millions of lives including Egssy's girlfriend Tilde and friends. She told the president to legalise and offer she and her colleagues immunity in exchange for the antidote to the infection. But the president wanted the infected people to die because he believed it will get rid of drugs and the addicts and provide a safer environment, but then millions of lives was at stake so the kingsman together with the statement must come together to stop Poppy and save the country.
POSITIVE ELEMENTS Love can make us do crazy things and Egssy is no exemption. Charlie attacked Egssy as seen in the beginning, with the help of Merlin, Egsy eliminated Charlie's men. But the police was all over the place and he had a dinner date with his girlfriend which he didn't want to miss. With no way out, he jumped into the sewage and swam home (full of shit). Also, after he met Charlie's girlfriend and it looked like they were going to have sex, he called his girlfriend first to take permission from her.
Egssy cared deeply for his friends. As a Kingsman, you are not allowed to be weak, being emotional is a sign of weakness. But Egsy didn't lose his feelings intact that made him succeed where other Kingsmen failed.
The world is a bad place that needs saving all the time and the Kingsman's dedication to do that despite the odds is a remarkable thing.
SPIRITUAL CONTENT There was a wedding in a church. Charlie's robot arm was referred to as Armageddon.
SEXUAL CONTENT In a bid to know more about the golden circle, Egsy and one of the statesman's agent Whiskey (Pedro Paschal) tracked down Charlie's girlfriend in a party. The duo flirted with her but she chose Egsy. While in the room, Egsy was skeptical about having sex with her but after she undressed, revealing the golden circle tatoo on her butt which made Egsy to change his mind, it was seen that Egsy put a tracking device in her private part.
VIOLENT CONTENT Charlie's attack on Egsy in the beginning, there were several gun shots and finally a car explosion.
Poppy is a cold blooded murderer, one of her workers recruited a new person and the first test she gave the recruit is to put her worker into a grinder. He did and she a sausage out of his meat. She also have robot dogs that she releases on her workers.
She blew up all kingsman buildings, infected millions of people through her drugs just to force the president to legalise her products, well, that didn't go down well for her and the president.
Extreme violence were shown in the final scenes at Poppy's place. Egsy threw whiskey in the the meat grinder.
CRUDE OR PROFANE LANGUAGE The f-word was the primary language in this movie as I lost count after number 50. We also hear, shit, bitch, dumbass etc.
DRUG AND ALCOHOL CONTENT There is definitely a drug content as the villain is a drug dealer. Drugs are seen on the table in Egsy friend's place. Characters drink whiskey.
OTHER NEGATIVE ELEMENTS None.
CONCLUSION My rating: 7/10 It breaks my heart to find out that this sequel despite its crazy actions and sense of humour, it's lower than the standard of it's predecessor. For once I would prefer to watch Juliana Moore in desperate housewives than in Golden circle. In the midst of the action, her character (Poppy) seems to make me want to sleep, as though she was given the wrong script. Apart from the humorous part of this movie, the only thing I like about this sequel is that it brought back my favourite agent (I'm sure he is everyone's favourite).
Vaughn did a great job directing such an all star high tech movie, infusing comedy in the mids of the crazy action. The direction is the usual though the CGI was over exaggerated, the violence is crazy, the use of profane language is messy. I was expecting to see more of Channing, i was a little bit disappointed when his part was cut short. This movie is not educative, it is purely entertainment, so if you want to get entertained, then this is your best bet as it serves as a good entertainment tool.