Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Kingsman The Golden Circle

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

It’s been a while since Hollywood worked this hard to make us have a good time. Matthew Vaughn, of X-Men fame, not only stirs up the original 2015 spy flick, he tops it with a bourgeoning cast and roller coaster speed action.

We meet up with scrappy Eggsy (Taron Egerton) as he runs into a spot of trouble on the way to meet up with his royal sweetie. Plunging into the trademarked opening action scene that always got us off to a roaring start with the James Bond movies, this chase through the streets of London is set to Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy. And that sets the tone from there. Kingsman isn’t going for the suave gravitas of the 007 films: it’s on a somewhat-more-regular-bloke level and this chapter insists we all let loose and have fun.

And have fun we do. The effects are cool, the action incessant, the winking jokes (I swear there’s even a sly political statement that had my audience burst into applause) work, maybe not so much because they’re expertly written but they are spoken by an almost top heavy cast that’s clearly having a ball. Colin Firth, who’s good in everything, is good here. Same can be said for Mark Strong. And we haven’t seen Julianne Moore as deliciously loose in ages. Yes, that’s Halle Berry behind those nerdy specs. And it’s Channing Tatum flexing those flexible pecs. It’s not giving too much away to say that Elton John (come on, his name is in the credits and on the ads!) is a hoot, hardly muttering a word. There are plenty of other actors around, too, but you’ll be too busy looking at the stars (oh! There’s Jeff Bridges) to care.

Go. Have fun. Why not?