Rent Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

Terible. Gave up and sent back unwatched - Kingsman: The Golden Circle review by CP Customer

i wish I had seen the reviews before renting this pile of nonsense. Some great actors with nothing to do but collect their cheques

Violent, cartoon comic book caper for teenagers - Kingsman: The Golden Circle review by PV

I saw the first Kingsman movie and thought it was just SO absurd - but then I am not a teenager raised on video games.

This is all cartoon violence reminiscent of the Beano but with more blood and explosions.

People get zapped; surreal scenes show cartoony martial arts fighting done with CGI; a ludicrous plot develops with goodies and baddies. So far so good. All watchable - just. It is what it is.

The action takes place all over the world - even at the Glastonbury festival - and features some top actors (no doubt loving the 7 figure pay cheques) plus Elton John (looking all his 70 years) plays a cameo caricature of himself. Whether that is a good or a bad thing is moot.

The chav white-acting-black English of the main character is spot-on, sadly - I hate this modern ugly inner city multiculturalist speak, though it is confined to poorer whites on London council estates. And 'Oh my days' makes these people sound like old aunties!

One flaw in this is that the baddies actually have a point - surely wiping away drug dealers and users responsible for most violent crime would be a good thing?

Anyway, watch this and go along for the ride - just don't think too hard or try to make sense of anything, and it'll all be over in 2 hours.

Despite some new cast members & visual flourishes, this is an inferior sequel - Kingsman: The Golden Circle review by TB

Kingsman: The Secret Service was a bolt out of the blue. Unashamedly taking inspiration from James Bond & other espionage characters/stories from over the decades, it was a fresh & invigorating take on the spy thriller; boasting great action, a wry script & star-making turns from Colin Firth and newbie Taron Egerton. It was also a massive hit at the box office, making a sequel inevitable. You would have hoped that with more confidence, bigger budget & the general no-holds barred attitude, we could have had a sequel which doubled down on everything that made the first film great, whilst adding more to the canon & universe.

Sadly, this is not the case & in many ways, this represents a step back for the universe.

We join Eggsy in London, where he is well-established within the Kingsman organisation. He is then attacked by a character from the previous film, who is able to hack into the Kingsman systems. A missile is then launched by Poppy (a deranged & psychotic drug baron,) destroying the Kingsman HQ and leaving the remaining alive members requiring assistance from the Statesman, the US faction. They then team up to take down Poppy & her organisation.

The biggest issues I have with this film is firstly exactly the same one I had with the initial story set-up of The Dark Knight Rises: in both films, it is relatively easy for the villains to basically destroy the heroes' entire infrastructure/steal all their money & leave them helpless. You would think someone who is committed to fighting crime should, as their first priority, ensure that there was every possible counter measure against them being attacked.

And secondly (this isn't a spoiler, he's on the front of the Blu-ray,) the film brings back Colin Firth. So the principal impact of the 1st film is completely voided and it also means that being killed in this film (at least being shot,) has no consequences. So you now have a film which is very clear on what real world consequences it wants to ignore & which ones absolutely are a matter of life and death.

Also, unlike before where you had an amazing villain in Samuel L. Jackson, we now have Julianne Moore, one of my favourite actresses. And she literally is wasted here. As in, she stands around, preening like the evil schoolteacher caricature that you watched in countless kids movies. She is not in any way intimidating, and alongside the poor narrative choices of the script, ensures that this film misses far more than it hits.

There are some good points, plus some of the stunts are amazing. And despite my views on Firth being brought back, there is still some enjoyment to be had seeing him and Egerton sharing the screen again. But this is in no way the sequel that I, or I'm sure many other fans wanted.

The King's Man, the prequel which is set in the same universe, does right some of the wrongs. However, the first film is still the best.

James Bond on steroids - Kingsman: The Golden Circle review by NC

Same formula as first film, with some more drastic graphics/PC-generation etc. Bit of fun. Mark Strong needs to get back to Guy Ritchie and do the promised Real Rockanrolla

Kingsman ...2 - Kingsman: The Golden Circle review by porky

maybe not as good as part 1 but entertaining and fast paced .beautifully choreographed fight scenes, clever use of camera angles and slow motion . a Good Evenings Entertainment . all that and Cute Puppies too !

Watchable but disappointing sequel - Kingsman: The Golden Circle review by Alphaville

The film opens with an exciting car chase that’s so well conceived and shot it’s almost in the same league as the one in The Villainess. But it’s downhill from thereon. The boring drugs plot meanders and loses focus. Our hero Eggsy is just as bland and difficult to engage with as before. Colin Firth’s character is resurrected from the original film but is only a shadow of his former self. Chief baddie Julianne Moore has virtually nothing to do. The dialogue is for adolescents who think swearing a lot is cool. You know the barrel is being scraped when an excruciating Elton John has a sweary bit part as himself doing kung fu kicks.

After the exciting opening the rest is played for failed sub-Bond humour. It’s almost a parody of the much better original. There’s a well-choreographed fight sequence at the end that brings back fond memories of the church sequence in the original, but it’s far too late to save the film. Two stars plus one for the beginning and end sequences as well as a ‘Making Of’ DVD extra that shows how the car chase was constructed.

Dreadful - Kingsman: The Golden Circle review by EJ

This is a truly dreadful sequel. The first Kingsman movie was just about watchable, but this is just embarrassing. It makes me wonder why an actor of such calibre as Colin Firth, would take the money to appear in this.