Kingsman: The Golden Circle

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It's kind of a shame to notice that this didn't come out to entirely positive reviews. To some extent, I can definitely see where these criticisms come from. At the same time though, I'd be lying if I said I didn't at least have fun with it.

One year after the events of the first 'Kingsman' film, we see that Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton) has replaced the now thought-to-be deceased Harry Hart as "Galahad" in the Kingsman Secret Service. On his way home, he is jumped by another thought-to-be-dead character from the first film, Charlie Hesketh, who now has a badass robotic arm... I don't care if it's cheesy, it's cool. Anyway, one thing leads to another in a pretty over-the-top (but fun as hell) car chase, allowing the robotic arm to eventually hack Kingsman servers, using the car's computer system. While Eggsy escapes, and goes to Sweden, a barrage of missiles hit all of the British Kingsman Headquarters. The only two to manage to evade the attack are Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong).

With this catastrophic event, Eggsy and Merlin discover how to contact the Statesman Headquarters in Kentuky. It is here that Eggsy finds out about the attackers; The Golden Circle. This organization is headed by a pretty little psychopath named Poppy (Julianne Moore). She is currently the biggest drug peddler in the world, residing on a hidden island that I swear looks like a bad 'Batman' villain lair. And I mean from 'Batman and Robin' kind bad. Anyway, she has placed a deadly toxin in the drugs she sells to her customers. However, she also has an antidote, which she will gladly release to the world if the President ends his War on Drugs.

There's a lot of detail to this ongoing plot, including Harry coming back from the dead. This is something that the movie explains, but you'll have to take it with a grain of salt 'cause it's not entirely believable. On top of that, the Statesman crew also join the cast, including Tequila (Channing Tatum), Champagne (Jeff Bridges) and Whiskey (Pedro Pascal) along with their version of Merlin, Ginger Ale (Halle Berry). I must forewarn you though, if you're there to see Channing Tatum or Jeff Bridges be awesome, I'm afraid you'll be pretty disappointed. Whiskey is easily the most active Statesman character. He's pretty awesome to watch with his lasso and whip in his action sequences, but it's at least a little disappointing that Tequila, at least, didn't get to do any field work in the movie. In fact, they put him on ice, quite literally. This makes way for Eggsy to take things over.

Perhaps the strangest thing you'll see in this movie is a cameo from Elton John. He ends up playing a kidnapped victim who Poppy is holding against his will for drug experimentation. There's a lot of Elton that unfortunately wears thin though, as I swear he was hired JUST to see how many times they could get him to say "F**k". He doesn't act very well either, and you see him in some pretty wild getups. All that said though, you can tell that he's having so much fun with the role, he ends up being kind of a riot.

All in all, I'd say it works out something like this. The first movie was a pleasant surprise to a lot of people who figured it looked too cheesy. The second movie, to some, might be what you worried about with the first one. BUT, it can most certainly be redeemed as a guilty pleasure, despite it's many flaws. I would compare it to something like the first two 'Ninja Turtle' movies in that regard. So, it's not nearly as good as the first one, but in the end it's something you'll have to judge for yourself.

3/5

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