Kingsman: The Golden Circle - Film Review

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by John Andrew (subscribe)

I enjoy "fine dining", presenting programs on radios 4MBS, MBS Light and 4RPH and going to drama and music at Brisbane theatres.

Published September 23rd 2017

Great cast, Great action

"While the action rarely flags, the running time is needlessly grandiose and the commercial calculation that underpins everything puts limits on Vaughn's bent for transgression." (Jake Wilson, Kingsman: The Golden Circle: Not an easy film to like - Sydney Morning Herald)

"It's James Bond on laughing gas and too much of everything". (Peter Travers, Kingsman: The Golden Circle' Review: It's 'James Bond on Laughing Gas,' Violent as Ever - Rolling Stone)

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Your aged reviewer agrees.

If you really liked the first movie, there is enough in the second to make it worth seeing. But it tries too hard for effect.

There is a narrow line between attempting tongue in cheek early Bond humour and stretching audience engagement too far. Elton John as CGI action man (for instance) for many will be a step too far. For others, it will add to the phantasmagorical razmataz.

That said, the movie literally puts us through the grinder of gruesomeness and has more than its share of choreographed mass slaughter.

If spectacle is what you want, spectacle is what you get.

Pity about the over-stretched plot and the (literally) incredible action.

This stellar cast could do much better with better material.