2015’s “Kingsman: The Secret Service” was filled with stars, along with very stylized action sequences; and a couple of big surprises. The follow-up shows us a few new tricks but it’s nearly impossible to top that infamous church scene.
Previous newbie Kingsman Eggsy (played by Taron Ederton) is now an expert agent. He’s still in grief over the loss of his boss and friend Harry (Colin Firth), who was killed in the original “KIngsman”. Those of you who seen the trailers for “The Golden Circle” know that Firth is brought back. The method in which it’s done is one of the many unexpected and cool parts of the film.
As for the villain, Samuel L. Jackson did a great job playing a wise cracking can’t look at blood, tech mogul, who threatens nearly everyone on the planet. His agenda was climate change. For this one Julianne Moore (Poppy) a miss-cast drug dealer wants to legalize drug use.
She wipes-out each of the Kingsman facilities in and around London, killing all the agents in the process, except for Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) all thanks to a mole. So they join forces with their American counterparts, the Statesman, who are based in Kentucky. Halle Berry, Channing Tatum and Jeff Bridges play three of the members.
“Kingsman 2” doubles down on the major characters and the action. While some of it works the main villain does not. Moore’s Poppy is not a strong villain. Unlike Jackson’s cool sidekick with the leg blades, she has weird mechanical dogs and apparently has a really gross appetite. She’s hiding away in the middle of nowhere and even worse she doesn’t even meet with the other cast till the end of the film. Tatum and Bridges only have a few scenes… especially compared to Sir Elton John. The music superstar plays a ridiculously cartoonish version of himself in at least a half-dozen scenes. It’s really hard to watch kind of pointless and really ruins the flow of the movie.
Firth’s return does help. Plus his bro-mance with Egerton and Strong gives some much needed emotional and calming feeling, they are really cool scenes. There are a few decent references to the original that help usher the series around granted the door is left ajar for a third outing.
Returning director Matthew Vaughn brings back what made the first “Kingsman” such a hit, and why it quickly built a large and loyal following: graphic, comedic violence and over-stylized, comic book action. But like any good Bond film you need a really good villain and this one just didn’t work.
R for sequences of strong violence, drug content, language throughout and some sexual material
This is a very hard R film the violence is more over the top here than the 1st theirs a couple scenes were 2 people are thrown into a meat grinder and one is turned into a sandwich and the language is just as bad not just with cursing but in regards to sexual references. The 1st trailer that was released featured a woman undressing showing lingerie; while there is no nudity during this scene it felt like I was watching a clip from an adult version of “The Magic School Bus” as the camera cascades down her belly and follows a tracker inside her.
I highly recommend watching this through ClearPlay
(LOGAN AT THE MOVIES) REVIEW C
