Review: Kingsman: The Golden Circle

‘Eggsy’ Unwin (Taron Egerton) and the Kingsmen are back, this time taking on a chipper but deadly American drug baron named Poppy (Julianne Moore), who in addition to her deadly drug operation, has also seen fit to wipe out Kingsman HQ, leading to tragedy. It’s up to Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) to take Poppy down before she unleashes deadly drug hell on the world. Aiding our heroes in their quest is the American equivalent of Kingsman, called Statesman. Headed by Champ (Jeff Bridges), the Statesman team also includes Whiskey (Pedro Pascal), Tequila (Channing Tatum), and tech expert Ginger (Halle Berry). Bruce Greenwood plays an amusingly stupid POTUS, whilst Elton John cameos as himself. Colin Firth returns as Kingsman agent Harry, whom Eggsy and Merlin encounter in America, not quite feeling his usual self. In fact, he doesn’t even remember who or what he is.

The first “Kingsman” was for me an unexpected delight. When I saw the trailer for this 2017 follow-up from director Matthew Vaughn (“Layer Cake”, “Stardust”, “Kingsman: The Secret Service”) and co-writer Jane Goldman (his usual partner), I have to admit that I was underwhelmed. I really didn’t expect much going into this. I was almost mildly pleasantly surprised. Almost. It’s…watchable, but definitely a big step down from the first film.

Taron Egerton gives an assured performance this time out, Colin Firth is excellently understated, and Mark Strong is terrific as usual. However, I don’t think the film’s attempt at mixing British and American culture/stereotypes is all that effective here, bar Julianne Moore’s sadistic 50s ‘Apple pie’ All-American diner owner villain. As the drug-dealing Poppy (an amusing gag in itself) she’s pretty good, if not as funny as Samuel L. Jackson in the first film as the lisping, Fast-Food loving evil Russell Simmons-type. It’s also kind of the same gag/character/idea anyway, so some of the freshness is gone, even though I like her character’s criminal scheme. Moore is good and certainly well-cast (Her character’s slogan ‘Save Lives. Legalise’ is hilarious) in what at times plays like a character out of a remake of “Cleopatra Jones”. One with robot dogs for henchmen.

Elsewhere, the film works in fits and starts, and for the most part is a bit joyless. In fact, Sir Elton John (who hasn’t been this fun in years) looks to be enjoying himself way more than I did. He’s a definite highlight of the film, as is the top-notch music score by Henry Jackman and Matthew Margeson (composers of the first film). It’s glorious Elfman-esque stuff, actually. Early on we get a nice call-back to Bond with the knife in the boot during a fun, if overly green screen-reliant opening scuffle in a small cab set to Prince’s infectious ‘Let’s Go Crazy’. There’s also a cute bit where the cab turns into a bit of a submarine, ala another moment in James Bond history. I loved the funny bit where Egerton and Strong get drunk together…and get a bit emotional. On the downside, Channing Tatum does the least convincing wild west accent I’ve ever heard from an actual American, and he’s not particularly funny, either. In fact, the film’s idea of an American equivalent to Kingsman being somewhat like the U.S. Marshal service didn’t strike me as particularly apt. Yeah, it’s clever in that it’s sort of old-fashioned like the Kingsmen, which I assume was the point. However, I felt the FBI or CIA would’ve been a better choice. Freemasons maybe? The alcohol-derived names also didn’t strike me as a good American equivalent of Kingsman’s Arthurian-derived monikers, either. Meanwhile, I felt Pedro Pascal was pretty badly miscast as a strapping wild west equivalent to Colin Firth’s Kingsman character. I know Pascal (who looks a bit like Dennis Weaver in this) was partly raised in Texas, but somehow it doesn’t translate on screen. Personally I would’ve used Jeff Bridges in that role, Matthew McConaughey in Tatum’s role (or maybe Danny Trejo?), and put Sam Elliott in Bridges’ role. That said, Bridges is terrific as an ‘ol cowpoke equivalent to Michael Gambon’s Kingsman head. Halle Berry is woefully unconvincing as a ‘techie’ and unfunny to boot. I guess she must’ve really wanted to be in the film no matter the role. Speaking of unconvincing, I have to say the way they explain how Firth’s character got to be where we meet him in this film is hard to swallow. It’s pretty stupid. Still, how about that Elton John though? The idea of Moore’s character kidnapping him and forcing him to perform for her is funny enough, but John himself really does give it a good go. I’m not sure what to make of the bizarre Honky Tonk version of Cameo’s classic ‘Word Up’ near the climax. What the hell was that? Whoever they are, I hope they never do that again.

An underwhelming mixed bag. This one has some good performances, a great score, and a few laughs, but a few miscast roles and quite a few too many dead stretches. I wasn’t really into this one, I’m afraid.

Rating: C+