Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

7/10

Starring

Colin Firth

Julianne Moore

Taron Egerton

Mark Strong

Halle Berry

Directed by Matthew Vaughn

Kingsman: The Golden Circle was boy-o-boy long. Over two hours long of events all summing up to the very ending you will expect and like the first movie, Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) it had an additional death that makes you wonder why the writers are so hell bent on killing characters people love in this franchise.

Before we get to the plot of this exciting movie, I recall when writing the review for Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), that it was not impossible for the writers to awake the dead and they proved so using a gel.

Colin Firth’s character Harry Hart was resurrected and his presence in the movie was much welcomed into a movie that started with a huge bang and continued with such excitement for pretty much 75% of the movie runtime.

The movie this time was focused on drugs. With Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore) being a drug baron who wanted to drugs to become legalized in the world economy and their earnings taxed.

Her plan was being dragged back by the Kingsman and she decided to take out the whole organization, but Eggsy / Galahad (Taron Egerton) and Merlin (Mark Strong) survived and decided to follow the Doomsday protocol. A protocol set in place for such a time in which the secret service was taken down. The protocol led them to the Statesman, a secret American organisation (like the Kingsman) posing as a Bourbon whiskey distillery in Kentucky.

There, they discover that Harry survived Valentine's gunshot a year earlier, but is suffering from amnesia.

With help from their American counterpart, the surviving Kingsman must find a way to take down Poppy before she kills millions.

I enjoyed the movie very much and was amazed even though we did not have the memorable bad guy in Samuel L. Jackson that we loved, we had a weird cannibal like one in Julianne Moore.

Another kind of downer in this production was the introduction of many new characters, who happen to be A-list actors, all a member of the American version of the Kingsman, Stateman.

The movie didn’t need too many A-list actors when in the end the focus was back to the original three in the first Kingsman movie, I guess the producers were keen on making sure that people had a face they liked and would for that reason go see the movie.

Great movie, hope it makes enough money for a third part, but I do hope the producers do not make a very long movie next time.

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

5/10

Starring

Geena Davis

Samuel L. Jackson

Directed by Renny Harlin

The Long Kiss Goodnight is a total waste of energy, enthusiasm and script. The movie lacked the needed punch and plot to make it matter. When I saw the movie at a younger age I was not bothered about plot, subplots and screenplay. Things like direction and performance did not matter and all that did matter was the number of explosions and gunshots the movie had to offer.

I’m glad that such a time is behind me.

When you consider the amount of talent and money that went into making this movie all you will come to agree that it was just a colossal waste. Geena Davis was not at her best in the movie and her badass spy lady look was just an appalling sight.

The Long Kiss Goodnight is about a woman who woke up and found herself pregnant with no recollection of who she was, how she got to where she was and how come she was pregnant.

She started a life where she was as a teacher and entered into a relationship where she had a home and was raising her daughter.

She paid many P.I.s to help her find her real self, but after the years she started to lose interest until one P.I. found something about her past.

This led to them following the trail and soon she uncovered that she used to be a spy and assassin for the United States Government.

The reason she lost her memory and how she became pregnant is what the entire movie is about and what (if you have not seen this movie previously when younger) you have to endure as a movie plot and twist.

The whole amnesia spliced with the remembering who she was had a drawback effect. Unlike movies/books like Borne Identity where the character was going through life piece by piece putting things together to make sense of where they are now and how they got there, this movie hits you once with it.

The whole splicing was more irritating than it was entertaining, going in and out of character switching between Mum and Badass Spy at odd times made the whole thing unreal and had to digest. It would have been much better if she was just smart, knew what to do and the things she did came to her more like a habit than it did like she was having a mental breakdown.

The Long Kiss Goodnight was neither a commercial (in the box office) or a critical success, but over time the movie has had a lot of lip service especially in the 1990s. Talks were around of a possible sequel, but it just never left the ground.

The Client (1994)

The Client (1994)

7/10

Starring

Susan Sarandon

Tommy Lee Jones

Directed by Joel Schumacher

After watching Thelma and Louise I knew my day was not over until I saw The Client again. Here is a movie that placed Susan Sarandon right there in my memory as a great actress. This is one her best movies besides Dead Man Walking (1995), Thelma and Louise (1991) and Stepmom (1998) (not in that order). The movie has her play a role that I could say definitively suit her, she had to get a child to trust her and then use that trust to save the child and his family’s life.

Based on a John Grisham’s novel of the same name, the movie also had veteran actor Tommy Lee Jones and it earned Susan Sarandon another nomination for Best Actress in the Academy Awards (in her career she has been nominated five times and won one for Dead Man Walking). She did however for her performance in this movie as a mother figure and a caring lawyer win the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a leading role.

The movie plays out as so, a young family (of a mother and two sons) lives in a trailer and while the mother went to work, the boys went to play in the woods.

While there by a stream a car drove up, the driver did not see the young boys, but they saw him. They watched him get out of the car stick a hose in the exhaust get back into the car with the hose in the car window hoping the fumes will kill him.

This made the eldest Mark, go and pull out the hose trying to stop the man from killing himself, an action that had the man catch him, drag him into the car after punching him.

The man starts spilling his guts about why he wants to kill himself, which was based on his knowledge of a dead body’s whereabout.

Mark finally gets the upper hand and gets free from the driver, who later commits suicide. Now the FBI is all over Mark based on evidence that he was in the car. They want to know where the body was buried, that information Mark claims not to know.

Afraid for his life he sorts out a lawyer, Reggie Love (Susan Sarandon). She takes his case for a dollar and during the whole process her motherly instincts kicks in and she had to struggle on how to be there for the young man and be his lawyer.

A great law movie from the 90s, one many will forever cherish and I believe you too will enjoy this flick if you get to see it again or for the first time.

Thelma and Louise (1991)

Thelma and Louise (1991)

9/10

Starring

Susan Sarandon

Geena Davis

Directed by Ridley Scott

I have longed heard of the movie Thelma and Louise, but the cover picture of two ladies smiling while driving always puts me off. I never got around to watch it and since I was put off about the cover I never read about it either, but today without reading and overcoming the front cover repel I decided to watch the movie and boy what a thrill.

Thelma and Louise is an awesome movie to see and one of the best movies on fugitives out there. The thrill starts after a brief intro on the two leads and runs until the very end you find yourself holding hands with the two as they ride off in the last scene.

Here is what the movie is about, Thelma (Geena Davis) was married to a controlling asshole of a husband who does not appreciate her. Louise (Susan Sarandon) her best friend is more of the wild one of the two and has a better grip of her life.

Both decided to go fishing, take a trip and be free, but that ride turned south when Thelma was attacked by a man who was going to rape her.

Louise came to her rescue and scared him off her with Thelma’s own gun the man’s loud mouth ticked Louise off and she shot him.

Don’t worry I haven’t given off any spoilers all this happened in the beginning of the movie. The incident led to a scared Thelma and a very confused Louise who decided that both will have to get away from what has happened as no one will believe their story.

The movie grew from there and we see Thelma mature while they were on the run and Louise who seems so much in control become at a time weak, scared and in tears of what to do next.

Here is a movie you got to see, a 1991 critical and commercial success.

It earned six Academy Award nominations and won one for Best Original Screenplay. Ridley Scott was nominated for Best Director, and both Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis were nominated for Best Actress, but they lost that year to Jodie Foster for her role in Silence of the Lambs (1991).

You have to take the time to see this movie for the awesome performance of the two women and the magnificent portrayal of feminism. They took control of their lives and ward off any one who tried to make them feel small or was on a rescue mission which they did not subscribe to.