Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Details: By Loron Hays; 22 September 2017

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kingsman: The Golden Circle - Movie Review

3 beers

Director Matthew Vaughn likes to get people talking. Recall, if you will, Kick-Ass and the choice vocabulary uttered by Chloë Grace Moretz as Hit Girl. It’s his thing, you know. Well, audiences are going to be talking about the hot bedroom action in his new film for months. It’s a great POV shot, by the way, that injects a little 007 confessional knowhow, as one spy must – while sexing up his female target – position a tracking device in the most delicate and sensitive and loveliest of her places.

Eat your heart out, John Meyer. Your body is a wonderland indeed. And, yeah, Kingsman: The Golden Circle definitely goes there.

Poor Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton). The destruction that follows his path to spy fortune and fame has a rather large fallout range. With so many eggs broken in the bunch – specifically Harry Hart (Colin Firth) – where can he turn? Well, saddle up, podna, and go west, young man! Go west! And that’s exactly what Eggsy does in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, a film that is extends the original story with the same gusto of the original. It doesn’t miss a beat or an opportunity to add more shaken AND stirred elements to its martini.

The plot suffers from the over-the-top action scenes that are shoved into this one and, with drugs at the forefront of the criminal activity, much of The Golden Circle feels a bit incomplete. But with the jump to America, the sequel gets a bit of a boost.

But, before coming to America, Eggsy first needs to pal around with his new girlfriend, the Swedish Princesse Tilde (Hanna Alström) and catch us up on the latest gossip. Okay, so some things have changed for Eggsy but, don’t worry, the young charmer is still there. He’s just a bit more polished these days and, truly, that leads to some pretty dull moments in the character.

Vaughn and co-writer Jane Goldman keep the hits coming in this continuation. The Golden Circle might veer from the original source material (which was the backbone of the original film) but it remains quite the spy caper with thrilling highs and a fun, frenetic stride. The film successfully reunites the entire cast and crew in an effort to match the absolutely dynamic action sequences of the original…and then, thanks to its hyperkinetic engine, attempts to top them. And, sometimes, it does exactly that. Sometimes.

What it does manage to successfully top is the cast of the original. With an expanded lineup of top-notch actors – including Champ (Jeff Bridges), Tequila (Channing Tatum), Whiskey (Pedro Pascal), and Ginger Ale (Halle Berry) as the Statesmen – The Kingsman: The Golden Circle recaptures the spirit of the original with the fun and the fantastical elements of that adventure, yet compromises a clear storyline with more than enough zany characters, including a new villainess in The Golden Circle’s ringleader, Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore).

Eggsy might have saved the world in the first film but it was at a price. And that price is a constant haunt that ultimately leads to a new path forward. The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming! And it is with this new crew – and a familiar face that Eggsy, now using his former mentor’s title as Agent Galahad, must work with in order to put an end to the drug-running methods of The Golden Circle.

Yes, the British and the Americans must work together in The Golden Circle. And, perhaps echoing a wee bit of our current reality, it is much to the chagrin of an incompetent President of the United States. Yep, it certainly sounds familiar and, with both the action and the zippy appeal still in place, there’s no denying that this franchise has yet to peak on its “All Time High” shenanigans. Yes, James, I just Octopussied your ass…again!

It’s oxfords and brogues no more in Kingsman: The Golden Circle; this time out we’re into ropers and 10-gallon hats. Yeehaw!

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MPAA Rating: R for sequences of strong violence, drug content, language throughout and some sexual material.
Runtime: 141 mins
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Writer: Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn
Cast: Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Mark Strong
Genre: Action | Adventure
Tagline: Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
Memorable Movie Quote: "We've got brains, skills, skipping rope?"
Theatrical Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Official Site: http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/kingsman-the-golden-circle
Release Date: December 12, 2017
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: No details
Synopsis: “Kingsman: The Secret Service” introduced the world to Kingsman - an independent, international intelligence agency operating at the highest level of discretion, whose ultimate goal is to keep the world safe. In “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” our heroes face a new challenge. When their headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage, their journey leads them to the discovery of an allied spy organization in the US called Statesman, dating back to the day they were both founded. In a new adventure that tests their agents’ strength and wits to the limit, these two elite secret organizations band together to defeat a ruthless common enemy, in order to save the world, something that’s becoming a bit of a habit for Eggsy...

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Kingsman: The Golden Circle - Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray Details:

Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD

Home Video Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Available on Blu-ray - December 12, 2017
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1; Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1; French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set (1 BD-50, 1 DVD); iTunes digital copy; Google Play digital copy; Movies Anywhere; DVD copy
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

20th Century Fox releases Kingsman: The Golden Circle on blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The film is expertly color graded due to digital cameras and the color saturation provides minute detail puncturing, replicated here in great moments. The cartoon action is sharp throughout the feature and the transfer handles all the happenings expertly. Blacks are deep and colors, as mentioned early, are varied and supple. The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track that accompanies the picture is just as strong, rattling window frames and walls with its immersive field of sound.

Supplements:

Commentary:

None

Special Features:

The release contains another extended look at the making of the movie, running at just under two solid hours of behind-the-scenes featurettes that can be viewed separately or as a longer documentary. This is pretty thorough – which is probably why there is no commentary – and covers all aspects of production from creating the comic book adaptation, to casting, the stunts, the costuming and much more. Fans also get a 13-minute look at the filming of the opening scene. Galleries and the film's trailer are included, too.