Director Matthew Vaughn
Starring Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Mark Strong
Rated MA
Score 5/6

When their headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage, the Kingsman’s journey leads them to the discovery of an allied spy organization in the US. These two elite secret organizations must band together to defeat a common enemy.

Before we get to far into this just for the record since the release of the original Kingsman movie, no I have not read any of the graphic novels that these movies are based on, oh and no I did not revisit the original movie before going to see The Golden Circle. It was good to see that the movie went big with its opening almost to bond-like scale for the briefest of moment I thought that this could be a viable alternative to the Bond franchise, I also quickly remembered who Kingsman openly mocked the bond franchise and pretty much everything that it stood for. So, I suppose we can rate the chances of that happening as being unlikely, it would surprise me if Kingsman lasted past a third movie.
In the led up to the release of the Golden Circle I had a chance to talk to someone about the impending release of this movie and they were a little ‘meh’ when they found out about the involvement of the Statesman. The inclusion of the American spy agency was a bit of a risk as the flair of the original movie could have been lost. However, that flair was not lost and the Americans and the Brits ended up playing off each other very nicely. I also liked the point that the filmmakers made about the war on drugs and how things might not be as cut and dry as some people might think that they are.

Julianne Moore was great as the villain movie, there needs to be a few more comic book movies with females as the lead villain in a similar vain to Moore’s portrayal of Poppy Adams. Her character was the right combination of creepy and nice. I was also impressed with Mark Strong’s performance, it was good to see that his character was fleshed out a little more in the golden circle. It should also be noted that Mark Strong is responsible for getting Take Me Home, Country Road by John Denver stuck in my head for the past day.