Kingsman: The Golden Circle - The Spy movie we deserve

Mathew Vaughn is back to direct a sequel to his largely appretiated Kingsman The Secret Service which took the spy genre to another level. The Golden Circle was under a lot of pressure to do better than its predecessor or at least be worthy of a sequel to it. Right off the back, let me say this, I went with an open mind, I loved the first part and this part more than lives up to its expectations, don't take the critics too serious on this one, just take a moment to see what I have to say as a fan of Kingsman. Vaughn doesn't fail to deliver with this and its a very fulfilling and satisfying watch. I might be talking about a few scenes from The Secret Service but none from this part, so if you haven't seen the first part, you're really missing something in life.

It kicks off with an action-heavy scene showing us the kind of action scenes that we're going to see and I loved it. Taron Egerton has done a fantastic job with Eggsy and he has proven that he can carry a movie on his shoulders. We can see how much he has evolved and learned from the first part. Alongside veterans like Mark Strong, Colin Firth, and Jeff Bridges, Egerton stands a class apart and Eggsy is just so badass. He is just the perfect gentleman spy, almost as cool as Harry.

The plot of the movie is simple, an underworld organization called The Golden Circle is using a 'popular means' to destroy a huge chunk of the population, very similar to the free sim card concept used in the Secret Service. Julianne Moore is Miss Poppy, the leader of the golden circle who tries too hard at being evil and cool, not everyone can be a great villain and Poppy definitely isn't. She kills people ruthlessly, uses her evil robots to get rid of people and even after all that bloody violence, many of her scenes are cringe-worthy.

Charlie, a rejected Kingsman applicant is Poppy's right-hand henchman and he threatens to finish off Eggsy and the Kingsman with his bionic arm. Its explained how he survives the head explosion in the ending of the Secret Service so he's back for revenge against the Kingsmen and Eggsy. What is it with Fox Studios and robots man, first the sentinels, then that bionic arm dude in Logan and now Charlie in this, looks like they have a lot of unused stuff from the X-Men set that they've decided to use in every movie of theirs.

Other notable members of the cast returning from the prequel include Mark Strong as Merlin, Colin Firth as Harry Hart/Galahad and the princess who Eggsy saved who also became his love interest in this. Before I come to our favorite agent Galahad, I've got to mention about Mark Strong. He always came off as this hard, stoic instructor but he has done something really amazing in this part. I loved every second of his presence on screen and towards the end, he just manages to steal the hearts of every single viewer proving that he's more than just a tech guy. Such an outstanding performance and if I talk about it any further, I'm only going to end up spoiling some of the scenes.  

We all knew Harry is coming back and the reveal is worth the wait. Seeing two Galahad agents kick so much ass side by side in style is definitely worth watching for their scenes alone. We see how much Harry means to Eggsy and Merlin and their bond is the true Golden Circle in this movie, not Miss Poppy's silly organization. Harry's return is addressed, I mean the dude was shot in his head and now he's back taking down evil henchmen but he's slightly broken and weak because of what happened. The medical theories behind his return are questionable to say the least, but who wouldn't want him back?

Kingsmen are under attack and they reach for help from 'The Statesmen' a spy organization from The United States who in many ways are similar to the Kingsmen. There are some notable members from the Statesmen like Jeff Bridges who plays Champ, the leader of the Statesmen, Channing Tatum as Agent Tequila, Pedro Pascal as Agent Whiskey and Halley Berry as Ginger. Pedro Pascal does some crazy stuff with his lasso and guns featuring a couple of action-heavy sequences. His South American accent combined with the Brit accent of Eggsy gives us a lot of diversity that exists in this franchise. Channing Tatum is way underused but it's pretty clear that he's going to have a major role to play in a sequel. Yes you heard me right, we're going to have a sequel, the movie ends in a cliffhanger and I can't wait to see more from this franchise.

Looks like Mathew Vaughn took went through our comments of that crazy Church scene from The Secret Service and that bar scene. A lot of scenes were packed with action and it looks crazy, but nothing close to the Church scene, they've tried hard with many scenes but they've already shown us the best scene ever. I guess you can watch it again just for the action sequences. James Bond would definitely lose a fistfight or a gadget fight or even a car-fight with Eggsy and Harry and the Kingsman franchise is definitely taking the spy genre to a different level.

The soundtrack is amazing, excellent sound editing and the guitar solos fall perfectly in place with every action scene. Overall, Kingsman The Golden Circle is worth watching multiple times, if you're a fan of The Secret Service, you'll love this too. The gadgets, the action scenes, music, set pieces, visuals, cars, it has it all. The only place where it fails is with its villain and its constant effort to match its predecessor. Taking notes is important but writing the whole book is just not worth it, maybe it could have turned out better with a little more originality but it shouldn't stop you from watching it because it's worth every penny.

Verdict:
Fan in me: 9/10
Critic in me: 7.5/10

Damn, I've written an entire review and I don't feel like I've said enough, please don't miss out on this and please watch the Secret Service before you see this, I promise you, you won't be disappointed. Elton John's cameo is funny as hell.

IT - You'll Float Too

Pennywise the dancing clown has resurfaced to frighten the audiences after 1990. Talking about numbers, here's a fun fact about the number 27 and the movie IT. According to Stephen King, Pennywise returns to terrorize people every 27 years. IT was released in 1990 as a mini TV series and is back in theatres for a fresh take in 2017, 27 years since the last one came out. Bill Skarsgard, the actor portraying Pennywise the dancing clown is 27 years old. IT released on 08/09/2017 which comes up to 27 when the numbers are added. Actor Jonathan Brandis who played the role of Bill in 1990 committed suicide at the age of 27. Now that you're sufficiently creeped out, let's get on with this review.

So we're in this town called Derry where people are mysteriously disappearing, particularly kids. We're introduced to the clown character in the very beginning with a very graphic scene right off the back which is clearly a warning as to how much violence there's going to be. Little kids are targeted by this clown character who looks to feed on their fear. We are introduced to a couple of bullies in Derry and how good they are at their job. Even for a bunch of bullies, they're pretty ruthless when it comes to torturing kids both mentally and physically.

 Every kid who gets bullied is welcomed by the 'loser gang' which turned out to be the best part in the movie. Bill, Ben, Beverly, Finn, Mike, Eddie and Stanley are the members of this gang and they get along so well. Their relationship is so magnetic that it makes you want to be a part of them. Each of them is brilliant in their own way, Eddie is a born genius, Ben is a nerd, Bill is brilliant with sarcasm Beverly is so kind and helpful, but the one thing they have in common is that they were all victims of the bullies in some way. They've all experienced pain in some way mostly because of the bullies. I guess you can say that age is just a number because these kids have nailed their parts completely, it took a huge load of Skarsgard's shoulder and at times even pushes him to the sidelines considering what a fantastic job these kids have done.

Pennywise uses their fear and has affected almost everyone in the 'Loser gang' in some way or the other, making them see things other normal people can't see. The concept of seeing things which you're afraid of reminded me of boggarts from Harry Potter, but in this case, the boggarts almost try to kill you. Also the fact that Pennywise uses the plumbing system pretty often also reminded me of Harry Potter particularly, the Basilisk. Warner Brothers just can't stop showing off that they have rights to all DC comics characters and a few of those characters are mentioned even in IT just like when the Action Comic of Superman was shown in The Accountant.

I can't wind up this review without talking about Pennywise and the buzz about how scary he is. Ever since he was shown in the trailers, audiences were hyped to see how his take on the dancing clown was, clearly, he has done a great job as Pennywise, he was creepy in every second of screen time that he had, looked great, laughed like a maniac while he was feeding on people's fears, the makeup suits him but that doesn't necessarily make him extremely scary. He looks scary, he chops people's hands off, decorates the entire screen with blood and stuff but when you hear him talk, I feel like it makes him a bit less scary. Nothing against Skarsgard but I guess they could have added some more voice filters to make him sound a bit scarier. There's one particular scene where the projector turns on and Skarsgard shows up with his hair floating around and that is definitely the most creepy and frightening scene in the movie.

Overall 'IT' had a fantastic plot, some brilliant acting from the kids of the 'Loser gang' and Pennywise has enough horror, gore elements and breathtaking visual effects in him to make 'IT' a very satisfying nightmare. But if you hear someone say that they're completely terrified by Pennywise the clown or stayed up all night because of what they saw or got terrified after seeing a red balloon, they're either exaggerating or they have a reduced threshold for fear. This movie was excellent but that doesn't mean it was down right scary from the beginning until the end. I take back what I said about the balloon part because after this movie, red balloons floating around will never be the same but I will stay on what I said about the rest of the things.

We have to understand that horror movies are not about all the jump scares, the nail biting, the crucifix or a demon threatening to kill everyone it sees. 'IT' kept all that aside and focused more on its plot using strong friendship as its crucifix instead of a necklace worn by a priest and that is probably why I would say that 'IT' is one of the best if not the best horror movie of all time because rather than focussing on getting us scared about the demon, it made us connect with the Loser gang, made us feel the fear they felt and added in some beautiful elements about how important friendship is and how staying together can end up saving your life. I loved 'IT' not because of the fact that Pennywise was doing ghost movie stuff but because of the 'Loser Gang' and how they tried to survive Pennywise's attack. I had a great time floating around with all the others who floated in 'IT' and I'm looking forward to float again very soon because this is definitely watchable more than once.

Verdict:
8.8/10

Seriously, this movie has some brilliant writing and the kids in this movie definitely don't have a PG-13 mouth, especially Bill. I can watch this again just for the scenes featuring the 'Loser Gang', their conversations and their R-rated jokes. Bill and Eddie are simply the best.