Critic Reviews

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is as cheeky, cartoonish, and crazy as its predecessor, but it’s also commendably unafraid to demolish what had come before it if it’s in service of the story. The new dynamic between Eggsy and his team is great, and the Statesman prove amusing counterparts to these gentlemen spies from across the pond.

As ultraviolent as the first film, and as ultrasmutty, The Golden Circle will leave the Kingsfans grinning, even if its characters have less growing to do this time around.

With its inventively nutso action, youthful vibe, and subversive topicality, the “Kingsman” franchise feels more relevant than even Daniel Craig’s James Bond. Screen espionage doesn’t come any hipper these days.

This fleet-footed, glibly imaginative international romp stays on its toes and keeps its wits about it most of the time, with entertaining and pointedly U.S.-friendly cast additions.

The movie is too long, too violent, too silly—too everything. Yet for those who enjoyed the original Kingsman, it is a more than adequate second act. To put it another way: first time satire, second time farce.

It’s fun, but it’s blockbuster overkill after an already-crowded summer season.

Vaughn’s film is overflowing with big set pieces, but all those epic action sequences amount to a running time clocking nearly two and a half hours – and not much else. Like fireworks, they’re awe-inspiring while you’re watching, but there’s little left to marvel at after the show’s over.

Like its predecessor, everything about the stylized Kingsman: The Golden Circle teeters just a little over the top: the elegant international production values, the perfectly tailored Savile Row attire, the hyperviolent action sequences, the depiction of something more than just an innocent hint of sex.

Sequelitis has Vaughn in its grip. The follow-up to his 2014 hyperviolent, boundlessly inventive spy-movie sendup gives the impression it’s trying a little too hard to surpass its predecessor.

The movie needs an editor, or a bartender, to remind the director when he’s hit the two-hour mark: Last orders, Mr. Vaughn.