KINGSMAN : THE GOLDEN CIRCLE - Tuesday 26th September 2017.

'KINGSMAN : THE GOLDEN CIRCLE' which I saw earlier last week, is the follow up film to 2014's first instalment in this growing action spy comedy franchise 'Kingsman : The Secret Service' which was both a critical and commercial success taking in US$415M from its US$81M budget outlay. Now some two years later Matthew Vaughn returns to the Director's chair for this hotly anticipated, eagerly awaited, much hyped sequel, on which he also Co-Produces and Co-Writes the Screenplay based on the comic book series of the same name by Mark Miller and Dave Gibbons. Released in the UK and the US at the same time as in Australia, the film cost US$104M, has so far taken US$193M, and has garnered mixed Reviews from Critics largely about the ensemble of new characters, the heavily stylised action sequences, the overly long running time and the lack of originality that heralded the first film. Vaughn has confirmed that he has a treatment already in mind for a third film in the franchise and has indicted Dwayne Johnson might be the ideal candidate to play the arch villain next time around.

This instalment takes place some twelve months following the death of Harry Hart (aka Galahad) at the hands of Richmond Valentine in the previous film. Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton) has subsequently taken on the mantle of Galahad and is shacking up in some well to do mews house in London with Princess Tilde of Sweden (Hanna Alstrom). The action ramps up from the get go with a kinetic car chase sequence as Eggsy's private Kingsman issue London cab is ambushed by former Kingsman trainee turned rogue Charlie Hesketh (Edward Holcroft) who lost an arm and his vocal chords during the final climax that saw an end to Valentine and his plans. As the two wrestle in a well choreographed, albeit well over the top, car chase and in vehicle close quarter fight sequence across the night time streets of London, Eggsy is able to thwart his adversary and effect his getaway. He dispatches his adversary through the windscreen of his London cab, although far from dead, leaving behind his bionic arm attached to the hand grip above the door. Eggsy disappears into the River Thames as his cab assumes submarine qualities and enters an underwater subterranean access hatch deep within the bowels of Kingsman London HQ.

Hesketh's dismembered bionic arm however, can be remotely accessed, and so it hacks into the cabs on board computer system and downloads every piece of intelligence from the Kingsman's servers. While Eggsy is otherwise engaged with his Princess meeting her parents for the first time in Sweden, a co-ordinated missile attack takes out the Kingsman HQ and all of the Agents scattered around the British countryside. Only Eggsy survives having been out of the country, and Merlin (Mark Strong) whose pay grade kept him off the Kingsman files.

Following the Doomsday Protocol which Merlin is aware of, leads them to reveal a secretly stashed bottle of aged 'Statesman' Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey. The pair drown their sorrows and toast their dearly departed colleagues downing almost the entire contents of the bottle, when the Kingsman insignia is revealed on the reverse side of the label. Seeing this as a vital clue, they head for Kentucky, recognising that there is some kind of connection here.

Arriving at the Statesman Whiskey distillery they are greeted by Agent Tequila (Channing Tatum) who treats them with suspicion and starts to interrogate them, revealing that Harry Hart (Colin Firth) is in fact alive having survived the gunshot wound to his head, but is suffering from acute amnesia. Agent Ginger Ale (Halle Berry) intervenes and confirms their identities as allies from Britain. In turn they are introduced to Champagne ('Champ' for short) (Jeff Bridges) who heads up Statesman and he briefs Eggsy and Merlin about a terrorist organisation known as The Golden Circle which they are investigating.

Tequila develops a mysterious blue rash that covers his body, and so is taken off the case and is replaced by Agent Whiskey (Pedro Pascal). Eggsy and Whiskey's first mission is to trace Hesketh's girlfriend Clara Von Gluckfberg (Poppy Delevingne) which takes them to the Glastonbury Music Festival in England, and plant a tracking device on her. Mission accomplished Eggsy returns to Kentucky to see if he can get Harry to snap out of his amnesia. Eggsy manages to successfully trigger Harry's memories by threatening to shoot a Yorkshire Terrier puppy that reminds Harry of his dearly beloved former companion pet Mr. Pickles that has subsequently moved on to the great kennel in the sky.

Meanwhile, back in some remote Cambodian jungle hideaway sits Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore) who heads up the largest single drug cartel in the world, is as a result the worlds richest woman and an aspiring megalomaniac, but is firmly off everyone's radar and she's not to happy about that! She broadcasts a message around the world that she has placed a toxin in every recreational drug available on the market and which she so successfully peddles. This toxin causes a blue rash to develop at first passing through another three phases - manic behaviour, paralysis and ultimately death most hideous. She has a fast acting antidote however, in plentiful supply, and offers it to the world if the President of the United States (Bruce Greenwood) ends his War on Drugs and offers her and her business interests immunity from the law. The President decides to quarantine every effected user across the USA by racking, stacking and packing 'em high in cages in stadia around the country. Included in those, is his Chief of Staff, Fox (Emily Watson).

Merlin intercepts a phone call from Clara to Hesketh saying that she is infected and has the blue rash. Hesketh orders his girlfriend to meet in Italy where he will give her the antidote. Eggsy and Whiskey infiltrate the mountain top hideaway where the antidote is being stored by the millions in single serve viles. There Eggsy steals a single sample for duplicating and in their hasty retreat down the snowy mountain in a cable car, he and Whiskey fall victim to Hesketh's remote control trickery as the cable car goes rogue, breaks free of its cable and plummets down the mountain towards a ski lodge. Needless to say Eggsy saves the day, and retreating to a safe house they are quickly discovered by Poppy's henchmen.

In the exchange of gun fire Whiskey causes the sample bottle to smash to the ground. Harry shoots Whiskey in the head at point blank range believing that there is something not quite right about that Statesman. Eggsy is mortified by Harry's actions and quickly administers an alpha-gel pack to Whiskey's head, as they did with Harry when he was shot, to preserve the integrity of the brain as much as possible and begin the healing process by using rapid acting nano technology. Later, Princess Tilde calls Eggsy in a state of desperate panic saying that she has developed a blue rash!

Later the three amigos discover the secret jungle hideaway of The Golden Circle at 'Poppy Land' in deepest darkest Cambodia, and so they fly via Statesman private plane to that destination - absolute first class all the way with all the amenities and 'toys' on hand. Upon landing Eggsy treads on a concealed land mine in the undergrowth on the edge of Poppy Land. Merlin rescues him using a freezing spray, but in so doing treads on another and has no freeze spray stuff left, and so chooses to do the noble thing and sacrifice himself while taking out the armed security guards in the process. It's a tearful farewell as Eggsy and Harry look on.

Storming the compound Eggsy and Harry first take out the numerous henchmen. Hesketh with his bionic arm confronts Eggsy, but ultimately the good guy wins the day, while Harry tussles with two fierce robotic canines that are Hell bent on ripping him to shreds. With Hesketh dead and the two dogs defunct, the two Kingsman turn attention to Poppy and retrieving the briefcase and the access code that will mobilise the drones around the world sending the antidote to rescue all those blue rashed individuals knocking on death's door. Eggsy injects Poppy with a stronger dose of her own toxin cooked up by Merlin, and as a result she succumbs to the accelerated effects very quickly and dies on the floor, but not before muttering the access code password.

Before Eggsy and Harry can activate the access code in drops Agent Whiskey, fully recovered from his head shot thanks to the fast acting alpha-gel treatment administered by Eggsy earlier. It turns out that Whiskey has an ulterior motive for working against the Kingsman and the Statesman in that he lost his pregnant wife to two drug users when she got caught in an exchange of gun fire, and now he is on a personal crusade working rogue to eliminate all drug users. Eggsy and Harry fight with Whiskey until the latter is man handled upside down into a meat grinder, coming out as prime mincemeat the other end. They key in the access code to the briefcase console, so activating thousands of drones around the world to carry the antidote to save millions of lives.

In the wash up, Chief of Staff Fox has the President impeached for conspiring to commit genocide on an unprecedented scale against all drug users, Champagne makes an announcement that the Statesman have purchased a Scottish whisky distillery to help rebuild Kingsman and in the process offers either one of them the opportunity to step into Whiskey's empty shoes, but they both decline. Ginger Ale steps up and is accepted as Whiskey's replacement. Eggsy marries his blushing Swedish bride, and Agent Tequila joins the Kingsman.

There's a lot to like about this film! If you're a follower of Saville Row gentlemen's fashion, kinetic over the top stylised action sequences, tongue in cheek wise-crack humour, spy type gadgetry aplenty, watching a couple of blokes get minced (literally) and another two cut/torn in half, a plot that has takes leave of itself, an A-list cast and all the spit and polish that a US$100M+ budget affords, then this film is for you. But, this films lacks the originality and the creativity of the first instalment that made that offering so fresh and such a success, and at a running time of approaching two hours twenty minutes it is easily twenty minutes too long. Seeing Colin Firth again playing against type is a joy it must be said and he does so with a suave debonair grace that harks back to Sean Connery's Bond, and Mark Strong's Merlin adds a touch of grounded realism to the unfolding proceedings. As for Taron Egerton's Eggsy he's all over the place and it's hard to take him seriously, and the American Statesman crew are all relegated to bit parts that really serve little purpose other than offer friendly and formidable hands across the Atlantic in a time of crisis. An enjoyable spy genre romp that riffs of 'Bond', 'Bourne', 'Mission : Impossible' and all others that have gone before, but fails to reach the dizzy heights of its predecessor. Also starring Michael Gambon, Sophie Cookson and Elton John.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 21st September 2017.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) which has just wrapped on eleven days of showcasing international feature films, short films and documentaries, ran this year from 7th to 17th September inclusive, and this year marked its 42nd year having been founded in 1976. Over that time TIFF has grown to become one of the worlds most publicly attended film festivals, with an audience of fast approaching half a million annually. TIFF is now regarded as one of the most prestigious events of its kind in the world, with the movie industry press over the years claiming that it 'is second only to Cannes in terms of high-profile pics, stars and market activity' and that it had 'grown from its place as the most influential fall film festival to the most influential film festival, period'. This year a total of 339 films were shown over the eleven days, with the opening film chosen as the historical sports biopic 'Borg McEnroe' as Directed by Janus Metz Pedersen and starring Sverrir Gudnason as Bjorn Borg and Shia LaBeouf as John McEnroe. And, of those in competition, the winners are grinners are highlighted below for your future movie going reference :-

* The People's Choice Award Winner : 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' - Directed by Martin McDonagh, starring Frances McDormand, Woody Harrleson, Peter Dinklage, Sam Rockwell and Abbie Cornish about a frustrated and grieving mother who antagonises the local Police force to call to attention the lack of progress in searching for her daughter's murderer.
 * The People's Choice Award First Runner Up : 'I, Tonya' - Directed by Craig Gillespie, starring Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan and Bobby Cannavale about controversial Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding in this tragic and comedic examination of one of the biggest scandals in US sporting history.
* The People's Choice Midnight Madness Award Winner : 'Bodied' - Directed by Joseph Kahn, starring Calum Worthy, about an exploration of the world's most artistically brutal sport — battle rapping, when a progressive graduate student finds success and sparks outrage when his interest in battle rap as a thesis subject becomes a competitive obsession.
* The People's Choice Midnight Madness First Runner Up : 'The Disaster Artist' - Directed by James Franco, starring James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Brie Larson and Jackie Weaver about eccentric filmmaker Tommy Wiseau and his friend, actor Greg Sestero, whose notoriously awful film 'The Room' has become one of the most beloved cult classics of all time . . . for all the wrong reasons!
* The International Jury Award Winner : 'Sweet Country' - Directed by Warwick Thornton, starring Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, Ewen Leslie and Hamilton Morris about an Aboriginal stockman and his wife, accused of murder, try to stay ahead of a fervent posse in the harsh outback of the Northern Territory, in this Australian outback Western inspired by true events.
* The International Federation of Film Critics Award Winner (FIPRESCI) : 'Ava' - Directed by Sadaf Foroughi, starring Mahour Jabbari, Bahar Nouhian and Leili Rashid, about a 16-year-old girl living and growing up in Tehran and her relationship with her family that is challenged after her mother takes her to a gynaecologist in order to ensure she’s still a virgin.
* The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema Award Winner (NETPAC) : 'The Great Buddha+' - Directed by Huang Hsin-Yao, starring Cres Chuang, Bamboo Chen and Leon Dai about a security guard and his best friend who become entangled in a web of dark secrets after stumbling upon videos that document the promiscuous meetings of a wealthy factory owner.

For the full listing of the films screened during the eleven days of TIFF 2017, simply Google 'TIFF 2017' and all will be revealed across a myriad of websites, including the official site.

With the focus returning to this coming week, there are six new release movies coming to an Odeon near you. We launch with a sequel to an action spy comedy that took the world by surprise first time around, and looks like doing it all over gain as the action is ramped up a notch or two and the star power in front of the camera is equally ratcheted up. We then go to an unexpected dinner invitation for a stranded massage therapist that has far reaching consequences for herself and one other ruthless businessman in particular. Next up is an Australian drama that sees three worlds collide on our national holiday; and then a horrific day at the office unwinds during the 9 to 5 that has eighty dutiful employees whittled down to one in a macabre experiment; followed by a story of man suddenly released from captivity whose only knowledge of the outside world is via a televised fictional toy bear; before wrapping up with those world popular coloured interlocking animated brick characters turning on the ninja action to thwart an evil enemy and save the day.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six new release films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are here cordially invited to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and meanwhile, enjoy your big screen cinema experience during the coming week.

'KINGSMAN : THE GOLDEN CIRCLE' (Rated MA15+) - 2015's first instalment in this growing action spy comedy franchise 'Kingsman : The Secret Service' was both a critical and commercial success taking in US$415M from its US$81M budget outlay. Now some two years later Matthew Vaughn returns to the Director's chair for this hotly anticipated, eagerly awaited, much hyped sequel, on which he also Co-Produces and Co-Writes the screenplay based on the comic book series of the same name by Mark Miller and Dave Gibbons. Released in the UK and the US this week also, the film once again has an all star cast, that this time sees hands stretched across the sea as the US unites with the UK to thwart an evil international foe. Taron Egerton returns as Eggsy, Mark Strong as Merlin, Colin Firth has risen from the dead as Harry Hart joined this time around by Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal, Vinnie Jones, Michael Gambon, Bruce Greenwood, Elton John, Sophie Cookson and introducing Julianne Moore as a notorious criminal mastermind.

The film here unwinds when the headquarters of The Kingsman is destroyed and the world is held to ransom by Poppy Adams, a notorious criminal mastermind and global entrepreneur associated with 'The Golden Circle', a secret New World Order organisation. Members of Kingsman find new allies when they discover a spy organisation in the United States known as The Statesman. In an adventure that tests their strength, cunning and wits, the elite secret agents from both sides of the Atlantic must pull together to battle a ruthless enemy and save the day, save the world and all humanity. Vaughn has confirmed that he has a treatment already in mind for a third film in the franchise and has indicted Dwayne Johnson might be the ideal candidate to play the arch villain next time around.

'BEATRIZ AT DINNER' (Rated M) - Directed by Puerto Rican Miguel Arteta who previous credits include 'The Good Girl', 'Youth in Revolt', and 'Cedar Rapids' here brings us a comedy drama film that was Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year, was released in the US back in early June, and now gets its Australian release having grossed US$7M so far. Starring Selma Hayek as Beatriz - a Mexican immigrant who has rebuilt her life as a holistic healer and masseuse who travels by car to the coastal home of her very well off and well to do client Kathy (Connie Britton). Upon leaving, her old Volkswagen breaks down, and so Kathy extends the hand of friendship and invites Beatriz to stay the night and attend a business dinner that she is hosting at her home that evening. When the guests arrive, belly's are being filled and the wine flows, so Beatriz finds herself in an ever increasing heated war of words with a ruthless real estate billionaire mogul, Doug Srutt (John Lithgow) who is more interested in money than he is in people. Their round table conversations results in life changing circumstances that neither could have ever imagined. Also starring Chloe Sevigny and Jay Duplass.

'AUSTRALIA DAY' (Rated MA15+) - this drama film is Directed by Kriv Stenders who previous film credits include 'Red Dog', 'Kill Me Three Times', 'Red Dog : True Blue' and the upcoming mini-series of the classic Australian novel and film of 1971 'Wake in Fright' which goes to air later this month. The film had its World Premier at the Sydney Film Festival earlier this year, and now gets its general release having done the festival circuit. Here the lives of three Australians on the run from varying cultural and social backgrounds collide in the steamy streets of Brisbane. Persian-Australian Sami (Elias Anton) is running from an angry gang of white lads for allegedly sleeping with one of their sisters. April (Miah Madden) is a desperate Indigenous girl running away after killing her abusive father. And Lan (Jenny Wu) is a Chinese sex slave running from captivity in an illegal brothel. Also caught up in this dramatic web of intrigue are a guilt-ridden Aboriginal Police Officer (Shari Sebbens), a detective on a manhunt (Matthew Le Nevez), and a bankrupt cattle farmer (Bryan Brown). These three stories will intertwine, intersect and culminate on the hot summer day that is January's Australia Day Public Holiday.

'THE BELKO EXPERIMENT' (Rated MA15+) - Directed by Australian Greg McLean who is perhaps most noted for his 'Wolf Creek' and 'Wolf Creek 2' Australian outback horror movies, here brings us another horror offering this time set in Bogota, Colombia. The film Premiered at TIFF in September 2016, was released in the US in mid-March, has so far recovered US$11M from its US$5M budget outlay and now gets its limited release in Australia. This films tells the story of what starts out as an ordinary day at the office for eighty personnel employed at the Belko Corporation Offices in Bogota. When the shutters go down and those eighty are trapped inside a voice over tells them that within the next thirty minutes two colleagues must be dead, or else more will be killed randomly. Attempts to escape are futile, and the next announcement over the intercom is that thirty must die within two hours, otherwise sixty will die at random. And so the announcements and the killings continue as friends turn into enemies, new (short-lived) allegiances are formed, and only the strongest survive leaving just two men standing, and ultimately, one alone! Starring John Gallagher Jnr., John C. McGinley and Michael Rooker. The film was written by James Gunn - he of 'Guardians of the Galaxy' fame.

'BRIGSBY BEAR' (Rated M) - Directed by Dave McCary and Written and also starring Kyle Mooney, this film had its Premier at this January's Sundance Film Festival and was released in the US in late July, and so far has taken US$516K at the Box Office. Telling the story of James Pope (Kyle Mooney) who has led a life of forced captivity in an underground home with parents Ted and April Mitchum (Mark Hamill and Jane Adams respectively) where his only connection with the outside world was a television show called 'Brigsby Bear'. When the Police descend on the Mitchum household and arrest Ted and April who are proven not to be James' real parents and have held him in captivity since he was baby, they also advise James that Brigsby Bear is not real and was a television show created exclusively for his benefit by the Mitchum's. As a result of James' changed circumstances and the Brigsby Bear television show coming to an unexpected and abrupt halt, James takes it upon himself to finish the storyline, but to do that means coming to terms with a new life and a new world he knows nothing about. Also starring Greg Kinnear, Claire Danes and Andy Samberg.

'THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE' (Rated PG) - 'The Lego Movie' was released in 2014 and was the first in what is becoming a successful computer animated adventure comedy film franchise. That film cost US$60M to bring to the big screen and raked in US$493M. A spin-off film 'The Lego Batman Movie' was released earlier this year costing US$80M and recorded a US$312M Box Office take. Now in late 2017 we have the second spin-off, 'The Lego Ninjago Movie' a computer animated action comedy martial arts offering which is Directed by Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan. Telling the story of the battle for the city of Ninjago as young Master Builder Lloyd Garmadon, aka the Green Ninja (voiced by Dave Franco) along with his friends and fellow ninja's Kai (Michael Pena), Jay (Kumail Nanjiani), Nya (Abbi Jacobson), Zane (Zach Woods) and Cole (Fred Armisen), are led by Master Wu (Jackie Chan). Together they must defeat the evil warlord Garmadon (Justin Theroux), who just happens to be Lloyd's estranged father. Pitching father against son, the epic battle tests these brave yet undisciplined modern-day ninjas as they learn to control their egos and unite to unleash the inner power of Spinjitzu. Olivia Munn also stars. The film is released in the US and other territories this week too. A third spin-off 'The Billion Brick Race' is in development, and 'The Lego Movie Sequel' is due for release in February 2019.

With six new release films this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, taking in an action comedy spy sequel, an unexpected dinner date, an Australia Day drama, a survival of the fittest horror offering, a television show created for an audience of just one who knows nothing different and an animated action comedy martial arts offering, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephiles afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-