Considering its predecessor played with genre and did things in a bit of an unorthodox and interesting way, “KIngsman: The Golden Circle” plays it pretty much by the book.
That is to the say the sequel to 2015 hit action-spy-comedy romp “Kingsman: The Secret Service” stick to its winning formula while going bigger – this one feels like it has a fairly massive budget – in the hopes bigger will equal better.
But better is a stretch, as, probably, is the sequel being even on par with the original. Yet while it’s a bloated affair at well more than two hours and just too silly at times, “The Golden Circle” has enough of the winning ingredients – including all that brilliant Britishness – from “The Secret Service” to be a relative crowd-pleaser.
When we pick up the story of Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Taron Egerton), the once rough-around-the-edges hero in training is now a full-fledged agent with Kingsmen, an independent intelligence agency in England that uses the public cover of being a high-end tailoring business. He is still grappling with the death of his mentor, Colin Firth’s Agent Galahad, but he honors him by using Galahad as his handle.
In the film’s highly entertaining opening sequence, Eggsy is attacked by a man who was rejected by the Kingsmen, a man sporting an artificial arm of the high-tech and heavy-metal variety. They fight in a moving car, and director Matthew Vaughn’s camera darts and jabs all over the place. It’s really fun stuff.
While Eggsy escapes with his life, that encounter has game-changing implications for the Kingsmen. Soon, Eggsy and Merlin (a returning Mark Strong) find themselves looking for answers and find them, as luck would have it, in a bottle of Kentucky bourbon. They have reason to believe there’s more to this Statesman brand than meets the eye, and a trip to the U.S. confirms those suspicions.
Tucked away behind the area of the Statesman distillery that the public is allowed to tour is a secret spy agency not unlike Kingsmen. It is led by Agent “Champ” Champagne (a really hammy Jeff Bridges) and also boasts agents Tequila (Channing Tatum), Ginger Ale (Halle Berry) and Whiskey (Pedro Pascal of “Game of Thrones” and “Narcos”). The American mates are a Kentucky-sized culture shock to the Brits, but there is also a friendly face there to meet them, much to their surprise.
The film’s big bad is Poppy (Julianne Moore), the seemingly folksy but quite vicious head of a multi-billion-dollar drug cartel, The Golden Circle. Frustrated she must live in a remote location to hide from authorities, she has built a small town with a 1950s-style diner, a salon and a bowling alley. That’s the sweet side of Poppy. She also has terrifying robotic attack dogs and holds no reservations about putting a henchman who has disappointed her into her meat grinder and cooking him up as a burger. Yum?
It’s not just that her drugs are killing people in the usual way; they’re causing an odd blue rash, with potentially deadlier symptoms to follow. But to what end? Sounds like a job for the Kingsmen and the Statesman.
As with “The Secret Service,” “The Golden Circle” is penned by Vaughn and Jane Goldman, Vaughn’s longtime writing collaboration. Their tale is full of padding, with a trip to the Glastonbury Music Festival in Scotland and another jaunt to a ski resort in Italy. Yet, the story mostly moves along at a nice clip – and they make delightful use of acclaimed music star Elton John.
Vaughn would have been well-served to tighten things up, of course, but the director of “Kick-Ass” and “X-Men: First Class” brings unquestioned style to the “Kingsman” movies. Along with the aforementioned car-fight sequence, there is the obligatory bar fight – hey, you gotta play the hits – this one involving the nifty electric lasso wielded by Agent Whiskey.
The acting isn’t all that impressive here, the returning actors mostly going through the motions. Egerton, a newcomer when he performed in the first “Kingsman” who then succeeded with an awkward charm in last year’s reasonably enjoyable “Eddie the Eagle,” still feels a little too raw here. It’s just hard to buy Eggsy as a skilled secret agent, but, hey, somebody has to save the world.
It’s worth noting that Tatum (“Logan Lucky”) isn’t given all that much screen time, surprisingly, and neither is Berry (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”).
Yes, it would have been jolly good were “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” as inventive – or, perhaps, re-inventive” – as its predecessor.
As it is, it’s merely a nice, familiar fit, like a finely tailored suit.
‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’
In theaters: Sept. 22.
Rated: R for sequences of strong violence, drug content, language throughout and some sexual material.
Runtime: 2 hours, 21 minutes.Stars (of four): 2.5.
