Kingsman: Kultainen kehä

Kingsman goes America! Given the stupidity of its premise and particular details reminiscent of Wild Wild West, this movie is surprisingly high-quality fun. Epic locations, stellar casting, a fast pace, a shitload of filmmaking ideas and especially witty pop-culture references, proving Matthew Vaughn’s intelligence and ability to reflect the current state of society and audience tastes. (02.10.2017)

I already had problems with the first Kingsman (I thought it was teenage nonsense that doesn’t know the limits of good taste), so it’s no surprise that the sequel didn’t pull me into the cinemas. Actually, I should rate it lower than I am, because it’s clearly weaker than the previous one. But I really don’t give a toss. The Golden Circle is such an uninteresting film that it didn’t even manage to piss me off. Sad. For a moment, I also wanted to complain about how weirdly and poorly the antagonist is drawn, but then I realised that I don’t remember even who was the villain in the first one (and I still can’t recall it!). But I will remember Julianne Moore, so I’ll leave my complaints for another time. :D (21.09.2017)

Vaughn pulls one action finesse after another out of his sleeve (it's nice to see neat contact fights in a big blockbuster, and I don't care that it's actually being constricted by a nifty VFX camera and a clever editor), but if he and Goldman went over the line too much last time, here they are incomprehensibly tame. The rushing of relationships at the expense of building a more meaningful story is terribly futile on all fronts. There’s a bunch of kitsch and sentimentality but without a drop of audacity, subversion, or any will to go more toward boldness. This makes the surprising self-sacrifice seem almost out of place and leaves the empathy barometer at rest. It's a hundred and forty minutes long, with enough plots for three films, but not a single one hits the mark. It’s really all quite boring. I want to conclude a trilogy that will rage for two hours on all fronts, then world peace and contentment will reign. (05.12.2017)

If there was a bit more action and humor, then maybe this sequel could grow on me. But without it, it’s a classic lousy sequel that has an action-filled beginning, ending, but the two hours in between are just a boring stuffing that the movie could do without. The only upside are the actors who are enjoying these roles to the fullest. What’s more, Elton John’s probably not gonna forget this experience for the rest of his life. After I finished watching, I thought that if the movie was half an hour shorter and some of the scenes got a little more work, it could have been a perfect successor of the first one. For example, I like Mark Strong, but some of the moments were plain horrendous. I don’t want to spoil anything, but a certain scene was so upsetting that were I a professional movie critic I would have gotten up and left. But since I’m not a professional critic, I finished the movie. If you’re expecting a crazy story, you’ll be pleased. But know that there’s less action scenes than you’d expect. Even then, it’s pretty good. (24.09.2017)

I like the first Kingsman, I like Matthew Vaughn, I like movies that aren't afraid to go their own way and have fun with an extremely violent scene in which Colin Firth dispatches a church full of religious fanatics. The director of this action flick hasn't given me any reason to doubt his abilities so far, so I was looking forward to the second installment, but alas, this time Vaughn stumbled. Or rather, it looks like he doesn't care where he steps. The Golden Circle is almost two and a half hours long, has about three action set-pieces (one great, one decent, and one pointless), but completely disappoints in its handling of the new characters. The Statesmen don't impress much, the main villain and her devious plan are quite a sad sight to behold, and it all lacks the lightness, wit and quirkiness of the first film. This one managed to be cool and engaging in every other scene. It's awful to see them trying to do the same thing this time around, and it rarely works. Otherwise, it's mostly talk, everyone is serious, and as the minutes go by it becomes more and more clear that this sequel doesn't really have much to offer. Just Vaughn's lucid action, a good Taron Egerton and an excellent Firth. You know that feeling when you have to make tea out of a used bag? That's it. It's still got some flavour, but it was better in every way last time. And if you had to make it a third time, you might want to give it a miss... (27.07.2018)

I still like it, but it finally gets going somewhere in the middle (not even thanks to the action scene), then it trots elegantly to the inevitable conclusion. It's still true that Vaughn can serve action on a silver platter without seams, but it's a pity that his provocations no longer have such balls. Only Elton John, who thoroughly did a lot of coke and is fighting for his life, but it’s still not as good as Kingsman: The Secret Service... (19.12.2017)

In his first sequel, Vaughn had a unique opportunity to play with the "rules" and vices of the sequel, just as he had in the past with fairy-tale, comic, and bond rules. But instead of addressing them, he made fun of them and took advantage of them, so he is slightly defeated by "sequel illness". The result is a film suffering from all the maladies of the sequel, namely more of everything, bigger, longer, more grandiose, more populated, crazier, more excessive and ... And as a result less entertaining (not to be confused with not entertaining). Mainly because the concept did not level up, the length is unjustified, the joke with Elton is repeated until it becomes annoying, Julianne is excellent, but detached from all interaction with others. It is too excessive this time to work as an (almost) regular Bond movie (which the first movie managed to balance), the original characters do not develop at all, there are no emotions except for "Merlin´s singing" sequence and most of the new characters are caricatures without any hint of personality. Does that mean that Vaughn lost his driving force, his ideas and made a pointless average movie? No, it doesn´t. He's a way too good director to do that, and the cast which clearly enjoys it helps him a lot, but the movie is very close to the above-mentioned. (20.09.2017)

It slows the pace less and picks up the pace more to the highest revs and cadence of insane, amazing, terrifying, or just perfectly effective ideas, never stopping for a moment. The boundless adoration of the first part does not apply to me, but I enjoyed it tremendously; maybe that's why I can now build Kingsman: The Golden Circle right next to it. Taron Egerton has also matured as an actor and almost doesn't lag at all behind Mark Strong or even Colin Firth. Again, the oddity and disturbing madness of the villain's Bond-like plan bothers me. Several times I even thought it was rising to almost miraculous places before the blue haze painfully brought me back down to earth. (21.09.2017)

Excellent fun carrying on riding the wave of part 1, pushing it to greater extremes, which sometimes is a shame, but you will easily forgive the Kingsmans. Vaughn again delivers us imaginative action, this time with a robotic arm and a jump-rope (pardon, lasso), a genius car chase in the taxi at the beginning. Again he successfully created an original idea about a villain wanting to redeem the world (I not talking about Poppy here) and the president is really cool. The eyesore of the movie in the form of a Cambodian temple with a retro bistro makes for an interesting setting. In acting terms, it takes no chances. Sometimes I have the feeling that some movies were made especially for me, and the Kingsmans are certainly one of them. See you in Sweden. (20.09.2017)

The taste of the British gentleman is definitely gone, and it's not because Colin Firth spends half an hour dealing with butterflies. It lacks the charm and the zest of the first one, and it’s also less action-packed and more digital. The opening, in particular, is bonkers. Prince Oberyn, otherwise one of the film's best figures, is far from saving the day even with his cool lasso. Don’t bother with another sequel, I’d rather have a spin-off with the American president. (03.12.2017)

“Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong..." I had as much fun as when I watched the first film, if not even more. Yes, it's actually a typical sequel - bigger, crazier, longer and so on, but at the same time it's still great fun that is able to combine with childish joy everything that it creators came up with (including a few very touching scenes and clever satire), and which has tons of great and unique ideas that many other films can only envy. (11.10.2017)

It's not a bad film, Vaughn is unable make one, it’s a sequel that obviously manages to entertain, but it's passed through a filter with giant holes and with almost as much mindless quantity on top as The Fast and the Furious series. It's still excellently directed and acted, the action sequences undoubtedly have great timing and originality, and the setting in the American South and the associated national contrast are very fine, but the film offers surprisingly little in its 140 minutes, and some elements, led by the villain and, unfortunately, Firth, fall into the parody box much more violently than the tastefully mocked motifs in the first film. In hindsight, what sticks in my mind the most is Mark Strong standing on a landmine and singing John Denver's “Take Me Home” – exactly the stuff that the eventual third instalment (which I'm not at all opposed to) needs more of... 70% (15.12.2017)

I was really looking forward to the Kingsman sequel and, as usual, Matthew Vaughn did not disappoint. Still, I couldn't give the film five stars, as I was annoyed by how everything has to be about Big Brother these days. I liked the previous film a bit more. It had a better story, perfect action scenes in the church, and Agent Whiskey with his lasso was no match for Galahad's umbrella action. Despite my quibbles, I had a great time. Plus, Julianne Moore was excellent. (20.01.2018)

This is exactly the kind of film I expected. It's entertaining, it's a B-movie, it's funny, it's action-packed, and it has great actors in roles that I enjoyed. True, some actors don't get as much space (Tatum, Bridges), but others get plenty (Moore and John). There are also several dramatic moments in the film. For me, it was very entertaining. (24.09.2017)

I suspect Matthew Vaughn of being too inspired by Gaspar Noé when it comes to depicting female internal genitalia on the silver screen. The second Kingsman isn't quite the typical follow-up you'd expect – it's surprisingly much less action-packed than the first, relies far more on primitive teenage humor, and works with the new characters kind of... strangely. Unfortunately, what's probably the most noticeable, and what's dropped to barely 20%, is the absence of the tremendous style and insight of the first. It's no longer "just" an irreverent film about extremely capable cool gentlemen from the British Kingsmen. The film's plot is centered on three continents, which in itself might be fine – on the other hand, you probably can't help feeling that it's slightly and unnecessarily over-complicated. The final impression is kind of strange altogether, and may raise the question of who Matthew Vaughn was actually making the second one for. But not to criticize, it's still pretty doable, breezy, and irreverent entertainment that first and foremost makes fun of itself. It just doesn't have the wow effect of the first, and the new characters, with a few exceptions, tend to make it worse off. But when you compare The Golden Circle to the vast majority of what's been made lately, it's still a damn sight above average. (20.09.2017)