'Kingsman: The Golden Circle' - Movie Review

It's a Hollywood sequel. What does that mean? More. Of everything. Traditionally explosions, but more importantly tastelessness, stupidity, and run-time. (I was a huge fan of the original film: it was a blast.)

We start the film with Eggsy (Taron Egerton) being attacked by Charlie Hesketh - a former failed Kingsman recruit (seen in the last movie) now apparently working for some other organization. This is followed by missile hits on every Kingsman, leaving only Merlin (Mark Strong) and Eggsy alive. Having no home infrastructure left, they turn to "The Statesmen," a similar organization to the Kingsmen in the U.S. These are played with considerably exaggerated Americaness by Jeff Bridges, Pedro Pascal, Halle Berry, and Channing Tatum. And they find out that Harry Hart (Colin Firth) is still alive (never mind he was shot in the head in the last movie) ... but he has amnesia. Julianne Moore joins the cast as a totally over-the-top drug lord - who is keeping Elton John captive to play Gershwin tunes for her.

One thing there isn't more of is people to save: last time they had to save pretty much everyone on the entire planet, this time they only have to save 100 million or so. As has often been pointed out, when the numbers are that large, nobody can actually visualize or understand the difference anyway.

I admit that I quite enjoyed several segments of the movie. But I cringed just as often as I laughed, and that doesn't balance well for me - especially compared to the original movie which had only one or two cringes and was otherwise hugely entertaining from end to end.