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Kingsman: The Golden Circle

4/10

Stars: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges, Pedro Pascal, Edward Holcroft, Hanna Alstrom, Emily Watson, Sophie Cookson, Elton John, Bruce Greenwood, Poppy Delevingne

Director: Matthew Vaughn

An overlong, frequently overacted aspirant 007 action thriller whose comic-book origins (Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons) are matched in style by Vaughn's, who delivers a fast, furious and rather too often somewhat fatuous Saturday Morning serial-style show whose admirable special effects and well-used location shooting help compensate for a less-than-credible storyline that all too often comes across as just plain ridiculous.

The show kicks off with the destruction of Kingsman's London headquarters by super-evil villainess Moore, leaving agent Egerton to boldly go to the US and join forces with Statesman, America's Kingsman counterpart who hang out in a distillery in Darkest Kentucky.

What follows is a mad mishmash of action, action and rather too often unbelievable action (thanks to special effects that create, among other comic-book creations snarling robot dogs and a magic umbrella wielded in best Steed/Avengers-style by Firth) whose logic makes little sense and which comes across rather better than the material deserves thanks in no small way, I imagine, to Eddie Hamilton's smart editing'

Alan Frank

UK/USA 2017. UK Distributor: 20th Century Fox. Colour.
135 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 2, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 3, Swearing 2.

Review date: 26 Jan 2018

DVD review