The first thing that comes to mind about the Kingsman movies is that they’re so very British. This is the sort of comedy that us Brits do really well; tongue-in-cheek, slightly nonsensical and imbued with a heavy dose of class-related hilarity. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the majority of our most well-known comedic output relates to class in some way, from Blackadder to Jeeves and Wooster to the absolute legends that are the Monty Python films.
The first movie, Kingsman: the Secret Service, was utterly daft. It was a James Bond/My Fair Lady spoof, which makes a surprising amount of sense when you actually see it, starring Taron Egerton, Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson in an inspired casting choice. Written by the wonderfully badass Jane Goldman and directed by the equally awesome Michael Vaughan, it was one of the funniest and cleverest movies that I saw that year. It’s been a few years but they’re back with a sequel: Kingsman: the Golden Circle.
When the Kingsman headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage, their journey leads them to the discovery of an allied spy organization in the US called Statesman, dating back to the day they were both founded. In a new adventure that tests their agents’ strength and wits to the limit, these two elite secret organizations band together to defeat a ruthless common enemy, in order to save the world, something that’s becoming a bit of a habit for Eggsy (Taron Egerton)…
Co-starring Mark Strong, Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges and Channing Tatum as Eggsy’s American counterpart, the film naturally involves dancing (because what Tatum movie is complete without a good dance sequence?) and is filled with jokes as the expense of the Americans. Because, duh.
In related (good) news, Colin Firth is officially returning to the franchise, despite the rather definite death of his character, Harry Hart aka Galahad, at the hands of Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) in the previous installment. There isn’t a lot that we know about Harry’s return yet – but speculation is rife as to how Harry could possibly have survived a bullet to the face, at point blank range, with some suggesting that Firth isn’t playing Harry at all but some kind of evil twin. Either way, Goldman and Vaughn are playing mind games with us.
This is far from the pair’s first outing together. They first worked together on the screenplay for the delightfully English (and also hysterically funny) Stardust, way back in 2007, and have worked together on numerous productions since, including Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class.
And then the Kingsman movies came along, their very own franchise adapted from a comic from Kick-Ass writer Mark Millar, which very impressively quadrupled its estimated $81,000,000 budget in ticket sales. There seems little reason to speculate that Kingsman: the Golden Circle will fail to achieve similar success at the box office when it’s released on September 20th.
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