Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

[mr_rating_result]

In a 2015 spy comedy, Harry Hart (played by a dapper Colin Firth) belongs to a top-secret British Secret Service organization known as Kingsman. In fact, that was the name of the movie, “Kingsman: The Secret Service.”

In it, Harry (codenamed Galahad) is assigned to train a young recruit called Eggsy (Taron Egerton) — which results in a feature-length feast of choreographed mayhem, slo-mo bullets, and epic hand-to-hand battles. Weapons range from guns to a blade in a shoe tainted with neurotoxin to a sharpened prosthetic leg.

Outlandish, stylish, it was a fun outing designed to turn all those 007 movies on their ear.

Spoiler Alert: Galahad gets killed in the end. Shot in the head.

Now we have a sequel — “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” — currently showing at Tropic Cinema.

We learn that Harry Hart is NOT dead. But he wears an eye patch, having been shot in one eye.

This time around, a villainous group tagged The Golden Circle blows up the Kingsman headquarters, forcing Harry Hart and Eggsy (the new Galahad) to travel to the US to hook up with their counterpart, a spy organization called Statesman.

In addition to the return of Firth and Egerton, this sequel crowds the screen with Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges, Mark Strong, Michael Gabon, Bruce Greenwood, and even Elton John.

Both films were inspired by a comic book by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar.

A third “Kingsman” film is planned. To outdo 007, the Galahads have to play a lot of catch-up. There have been 26 James Bond films so far.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com