Movie: Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle

So, thank goodness for Mark Strong.And John Denver.The first Kingsman movie was a little bit different and completely tongue in cheek and so just about got away with some of the terrible story lines. This one is just vile.Strong is essential to the film but whereas excellent before, Colin Firth returns, despite his character being killed in the first film. Yes really! It was totally unnecessary, except to sell the film to America I guess.This time the agents work with their, unknown until now, American counterparts to catch the world’s biggest drug dealer, Poppy(Julianne Moore – excellent) who has infected her own product with poison in order to blackmail the world with the antidote. The negotiations with the hapless US president are probably more based on reality than they envisaged when writing the script.The storyline is just cheap. Seriously, I expected so much better. Every other scene is gratuitously vulgar. We just don’t need to see bodies being minced and this is the first time I’ve closed my eyes during a (pointless) sex scene; it was that cringe-making.And stop with the slow motion. It's so old.The stand out scene in the film is Merlin's (Mark Strong) obsession with Country Road (spoiler alert), one of my favourite songs from childhood.They should have kept it funny for all rather than making it a teenage comedy. A terrible use of good acting capabilities - and Elton John - why?!I had to watch the excellent Kick Ass on the telly-box to get over it.3/10