"Kingsman: The Golden Circle" Movie Review

An outlandish, disjointed and overlong film, Matthew Vaughn’s “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” doesn’t recapture the tongue-in-cheek charm of the original but is nonetheless entertaining.

Picking up where 2014’s “Kingsman: The Secret Service” left off, Kingsman, a United Kingdom-based spy organization, is faced with another global threat. An over-the-top villain, played by Julianne Moore, viciously targets Kingsman, forcing them to contact their American counterparts, the Statesmen. Eggsy, played by Taron Egerton, and Merlin, played by Mark Strong, reluctantly team up with the Statesmen, whose nationalistic ideals and impoliteness contrast Kingsman’s formality and professionalism.

To say that “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” is outrageous would be an understatement. Matthew Vaughn, who previously directed 2010’s “Kick-Ass” and 2014’s “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” never shies away from irreverence in his films. Featuring profanity and ultraviolence, Vaughn’s films often have an excessive yet entertaining flair. From the first scene on, “The Golden Circle” is on par with the original’s craziness. The film proves exhausting by the end of its nearly two-and-a-half-hour runtime.

The Statesmen, with their southern slang and cowboy attitude, amusingly contrast the Kingsman agents, who possess a peculiar mixture of politeness and crudeness. Similar to the first film, “The Golden Circle” has the potential to offend just about every type of person. Targeting British and American stereotypes, the war on drugs, government officials, and mental illness, “The Golden Circle” embraces political incorrectness. While the original’s irreverence proved endearing, several sections of “The Golden Circle,” played for laughs, serve little importance to the plot.

One particular sequence halfway through the film involves Eggsy implanting a tracking device into a woman. This prolonged sequence feels distasteful, uncomfortable and sexist, reflecting Vaughn’s sporadically immature sensibilities. The original film handled its controversial scenes more skillfully. In “The Golden Circle,” by trying to one-up the original in terms of profanity, the film’s humor occasionally swerves into the realm of bad taste.

The stylized action scenes, filmed with copious CGI, lend “The Golden Circle” the feel of an animated film. The characters perform incredible acrobatics and use ridiculously over-the-top weapons and gadgets. While undeniably impressive, “The Golden Circle” doesn’t contain a sequence as satisfying as the visceral, well-choreographed ultraviolence of the church showdown from the original film.

Unfortunately, the film’s use of CGI proves distracting in several action scenes. In trying to make some fight scenes appear as one continuous take, Vaughn has the camera maneuver directly through the action, switching angles and transitioning into other locations. While initially visually appealing, the floaty camerawork proves difficult to follow.

The film’s all-star cast, including Channing Tatum, Halle Berry and a clean-shaven Jeff Bridges, is surprisingly underused, with some actors only appearing in a few scenes. While Egerton, Strong and Colin Firth give solid performances, “The Golden Circle” doesn’t use the cast’s star power effectively. Shockingly, Elton John is featured more prevalently in the film than Tatum’s character.

Though not as consistently entertaining as the original, “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” should please viewers looking for a fun, action-packed spy adventure.