Mathew Vaughn’s 2015 tongue in cheek pastiche of the spy genre – Kingsman: The Secret Service was so successful that a sequel was inevitable and with Kingsman: The Golden Circle he has delivered a follow-up as entertainingly violent and, occasionally, smutty as the first.
Taking place a year after the events of the first and after their headquarters are destroyed by drugs baron Poppy (Julianne Moore), Kingsman agents Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and Merlin (Mark Strong) journey to Kentucky to enlist help from their American cousins - Statesman- to prevent the rest of Poppy’s nefarious plans from coming to fruition.
At the centre of the first Kingsman was a touching relationship between Harry (Colin Firth), Merlin and Eggsy in which the straight-laced agents tutored the not so prim and proper street kid in the art of being a gentleman spy.
It is the dynamic between these three that holds the sequel together and while Eggsy and Merlin’s attempt to bring an amnesiac Harry back to his former self lacks some of the edge of the first film it is nevertheless a pleasure to be back in their company of the central trio who are ably supported by Pedro Pascal’s lasso–twirling Statesman agent Whiskey and Moore’s psychopathic antagonist.
Vaughn keeps the film moving with ultraviolent, dizzying action sequences all captured in a series of breath-taking long, unbroken shots by cinematographer George Richmond.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle is a slick, inventive sequel that will leave fans grinning from ear to ear.
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