This Kingsman sequel is an action spy thriller directed by Matthew Vaughn and written by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman. Talk about an over the top fantasy — this is it! The special effects were of the likes which I’ve not seen since the last Kingsman. This is really thrilling in every sense of the word. If it’s excitement you want, you’ve come to the right film. Crazy is as crazy does and Kingsman: The Golden Circle does a whole lot of crazy.
A year has passed since Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Taron Egerton) and the secret organization called Kingsman saved the world from Richmond Valentine’s neurological wave broadcast. Eggsy has finally taken his late mentor, Harry Hart’s (Colon Firth) title of Galahad and is now living with Crown Princess Tilde of Sweden (Hanna Alström). One evening, Charlie Hesketh (Edward Holcroft), a former Kingsman trainee who lost his arm and vocal cords during the Valentine incident, lays in wait and attacks Eggsy as he is returning home. A car chase ensues and Charlie loses his cybernetic arm, which hacks into the Kingsmen servers, destroying their headquarters and killing all their agents in Britain with a missile attack. Being the only surviving agents, Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) follow the Doomsday protocol, which leads them to Statesman, a secret American organization posing as a bourbon whiskey distillery in Kentucky. There, they discover their US counterparts, Tequila (Channing Tatum), Champagne “Champ” (Jeff Bridges), who is also head of the US organization and Jack Daniels / Whiskey (Pedro Pascal). Merlin’s counter is Ginger Ale (Halle Berry), who wants to work more in the field. At this point, they are briefed about a secret terrorist organization called The Golden Circle headed up by Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore), head of the world’s largest drug cartel.
Poppy announces that she has developed and distributed a drug that inflicts it’s user with a blue rash that causes eventual mania before moving on to paralysis then death. She makes her demands to every world leader in exchange for the antidote but of course, they are working against time. The Kingman and Stateman begin their mission by following Charlie’s ex-girlfriend Clara Von Gluckfberg (Poppy Delevingne), who has developed the rash as well as Elton John, Eggsy’s girlfriend and hundreds of thousands more.
I must admit, the first Kingman movie had all the surprises in it for me. The special effects were out of this world and pretty new. I don’t feel this sequel equaled or topped the first one. The Golden Circle actually got a little sloppy, crazy and unbelievable. The film is 2 hours and 21 minutes long but still managed to keep me entertained. Some scenes were down right silly and not even Elton John could make a difference. There is still a whole lot of story to be explored along with some interesting concepts. I think if nothing else, it’s a complete joyride with a great fantasy plot. It’s definitely worth checking out!
Logan Lucky is another summer fill-in. I wouldn’t say it’s a bad one but I wouldn’t say it’s a good one either. It’s a comedy, which may be its saving grace, about a heist with a twist. Hollywood is making these fill-ins a little better than they use to so kudos to Steven Soderbergh for a half way descent movie to end the summer.
What a great American Western Mystery. Witty, surprising, well acted, entertaining with non-stop action brought to you in pure Tarantino, outrageous, unpolitically correct style, with the use of the “N” word close to, if not more than 100 times. Minnie’s Haberdashery is where the Hateful 8 mostly took place in the freezing winter during a blizzard that was so forceful, neither man nor beast could survive. The Hateful 8 is split into 6 chapters: “Last Stage to Red Rock”, “Son of a Gun”, “Minnie’s Haberdashery”, “Domergue’s got a Secret”, “The Four Passengers” and “Black Man, White Hell”. For some reason, having the movie divided and labeled brought even more mystery and added to the question, what’s wrong with this picture? Quentin’s direction kept the audience guessing until the very end. No predictions here. For 3 hours and 7 minutes, the surprises just kept coming. The cast was brilliant. Kurt Russell plays John Ruth, a bounty hunter aka “The Hangman”, Samual L. Jackson plays Major Marquis Warren, a former soldier turned bounty hunter, Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Daisy Domergue, a fugitive being brought in for trial but ultimately to hang, Walton Goggins plays Sheriff Chris Mannix, a racist and the newly elected sheriff of Red Rock, Demián Bichir plays Bob the new haberdashery manager, aka “The Mexican”, Tim Roth plays Oswaldo Moleray also called the “Little Man” whose job is hanging convicted criminals, Michael Madsen plays Joe Gage, known as “The Cow Puncher”, Bruce Dern plays General Sanford Smithers aka “The Confederate”, Channing Tatum plays Jody Domergue, Daisy’s brother, James Parks plays O.B. the stage coach driver and Danna Gourrier plays Minnie Mink, the haberdashery owner.
There’s only one word to describe Magic Mike XXL, raunchy! If you’re looking to see anything like the last Magic Mike, forget it. This sequel has a new look and feel. They’ve stepped it up by 10 times the fun and excitement of old. Word of mouth is something else because I kept seeing large groups of ladies, especially the 50+ range flocking to see Magic Mike XXL. The shy laughter and red faces were infectious. I had no intentions of going to see it because I expected more of the same since I had seen the first Magic Mike. I was surprised and my curiosity was well satisfied once I saw what the “brouhaha” was all about. We all know about the outstanding bodies of Channing Tatum who plays Mike, Joe Mangoniello who plays Big Dick Richie, Matt Bomer who plays Ken and the rest of the group Adam Rodriguez who plays Tito, Juan Piedrahita who plays Salvador and Kevin Nash who plays Tazan. Dancer, Stephen “tWitch” Boss joins the cast as Malik to make matters even better. In this sequel, Mike returns to the team after failing at love and struggling with his furniture business. Their journey to the stripper convention in Myrtle Beach makes for quite a story. Jada Pinkett Smith plays Rome, a DJ and entrepreneur who is well known and old friends with Mike. Andie MacDowell plays Nancy Davidson, a rich mother looking for love who helps out the team and develops a relationship with Big Dick Richie. Over all, Magic Mike XXL is a ladies movie that is entertaining and not for the prudish. I think it’s worth seeing.
The trailers for Jupiter Ascending were enticing but the movie was all over the place. Ambiguous yet tolerable as a love story, Jupiter Ascending was a letdown. The special effects were some of the best I’ve seen. I think someone got carried away with perfecting green screen scenes instead of letting the audience in on what was really happening. At one point, I was just watching for the effects rather than trying to make sense of the story. Please note, I saw this movie in Real 3D, which really brought the special effects to life.
Weird is as weird does and Foxcatcher is weird. The tone is set so dark that it was hard to know what happy was. Foxcatcher which is based on a true story has emerged as an Oscar contender. I’m not very familiar with the sport of wrestling however after seeing Foxcatcher, I realized it was not really about wrestling but about the pressures of life and the impression most of us would like to leave on our parents. Steve Carell brilliantly plays the wealthy John DuPont who has a passion for wrestling. His desire to own a team that would take home the gold during the 1988 Olympics, brought him to a relationship with Mark and Dave Schultz played by Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo, respectively. Both are world renowned for their wrestling talents and had already won gold for the 1984 Olympics. The acting was fantastic as this was Steve Carell’s first serious actor endeavor which awarded him a Best Actor nomination. Vanessa Redgrave played Jean DuPont, mother to John. With a cast like this, you can’t go wrong. Kudos to Foxcatcher’s director, Bennett Miller, who must have had some difficultly keeping this movie as strange as it is. The twist is even stranger and if you don’t know the story, you will never see it coming. Foxcatcher held my interest and was enlightening.
CAROL's WORLDS 