Not-so-crafty spycraft

A wild car chase through London streets in the opening scene of Kingsman: The Golden Circle thrills like a James Bond action sequence. But when a prosthetic arm, newly severed from its windshield-ejected owner, crawls through a car and hacks an onboard computer, viewers (like me) unfamiliar with the franchise’s Kingsman comic book series source material and 2015 original film start to get the real picture.

Writer-director Matthew Vaughn’s follow-up to Kingsman: The Secret Service features a death by meat grinder, an explicit scene of bizarre sexual material, and Elton John as himself. The strong R rating (for language, drug use, and the non-Elton reasons listed above) will keep some viewers away. Stretches of lifeless dialogue and questionably useful side stories will vex many who do buy a ticket.

Poppy (a bland Julianne Moore) and her Golden Circle henchmen run the world’s largest drug cartel. Her headquarters, Poppyland, hidden in the Cambodian jungle, resembles a 1950s-era American town square. She contaminates her product with a deadly substance, causing drug users (“victims”) everywhere to contract a blue rash and die. Poppy is pro-decriminalization, though, extorting world leaders: She’ll provide an antidote if governments agree to eliminate drug laws.

Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and his Kingsman spy organization join forces with the Kentucky-based Statesman intelligence agency to take Poppy down. Egerton brings some splash to the film’s dry spells, which do have their funny moments. In one scene, Elton John, attempting to escape captivity in Poppyland, performs Matrix-like martial arts in full-feathered splendor.

Kudos to Vaughn for having Eggsy turn down a sexual advance and pursue marriage, but new cult classic or not, the film’s many objectionable moments suggest any King’s man should skip this one.