Wonder Woman (2017)

Wonder Woman is a 2017 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the fourth installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film is directed by Patty Jenkins, with a screenplay by Allan Heinberg, from a story by Heinberg, Zack Snyder, and Jason Fuchs, and stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Connie Nielsen, and Elena Anaya. Wonder Woman is the second live action theatrical film featuring the titular character, following her debut in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Jenkins's role as director makes her the first female director of a studio superhero comic book live-action theatrical release film.The film tells the story of Princess Diana, who grows up on the Amazon island of Themyscira. After American pilot Steve Trevor crashes offshore of the island and is rescued by her, he tells the Amazons about the ongoing World War. Diana then leaves her home in order to end the conflict, becoming Wonder Woman in the process.

While development for the film began in 1996, Jenkins signed on to direct in 2015. Principal photography began on November 21, 2015, with filming taking place in the United Kingdom, France, and Italy before wrapping up on May 9, 2016, the 123rd anniversary of the birth of the creator, William Moulton Marston. Additional filming took place in November 2016.

Wonder Woman premiered in Shanghai on May 15, 2017, and was released in the United States on June 2, 2017, in 2D, 3D and IMAX3D. It received largely positive reviews from critics, being praised for the direction, performances, action sequences and musical score.^[7] The film set numerous box office records, including becoming the highest-grossing film directed by a woman, the biggest domestic opening for a film directed by a woman, the highest-grossing superhero origin film domestically, and the largest opening for a female-led comic book film. Wonder Woman is also the fifth highest-grossing superhero film domestically and 20th highest-grossing film in the United States. It has grossed over $820 million worldwide, making it the seventh highest-grossing film of 2017. It also helped the DCEU to push past $3 billion at the worldwide box office, making it the seventeenth highest-grossing film franchise of all time. A sequel, Wonder Woman 2, is set to be released on December 13, 2019.

In present-day Paris, Diana Prince receives a photographic plate of herself during World War I, which prompts her to recall her past. The daughter of Queen Hippolyta, Diana was raised on the hidden island of Themyscira, home to the Amazonian race of warrior women created by Zeus to protect mankind. Hippolyta shares the Amazonian history with Diana, including how Ares, Zeus's son, became jealous of humanity and worked to orchestrate its destruction. When the other gods of Mount Olympus attempted to stop him, Ares killed all but Zeus, who managed to hurt Ares enough to force a retreat. Zeus left the Amazons a weapon, the "Godkiller", to prepare them for Ares' return.

Hippolyta forbids Diana to train, then relents by having her sister Antiope train Diana, but so long as her training is more difficult than that received by any other warrior in the army. As a young woman in 1918, Diana rescues American pilot Captain Steve Trevor when his plane crashes off the Themyscira coast. He is pursued by a German cruiser. The Amazons kill the crew and Antiope sacrifices herself to save Diana. Steve is interrogated with the Lasso of Hestia. He reveals that a war is consuming the outside world, and that he is an Alliedspy. He has stolen a notebook of the Spanish chief chemist Isabel Maru, who is attempting to engineer a deadlier form of mustard gas, under the orders of General Erich Ludendorff. Diana believes Ares is responsible for the war. She arms herself with the "Godkiller" sword, the lasso and her armor before leaving Themyscira with Steve to find and destroy Ares.

In London, they deliver Maru's notebook to the Supreme War Council, where Sir Patrick Morgan is trying to negotiate an armistice with Germany. Diana translates Maru's notes and reveals that the Germans plan to release the deadly gas at the War Front. Although forbidden by his commanders to act, Steve, with secret funding from Sir Patrick, recruits spy Sameer, marksman Charlie, and smuggler Chief to help prevent the gas from being released. When the team reaches the Western Front in Belgium, they are halted by the enemy lines. Diana goes alone through No Man's Land and captures the enemy trench, allowing the Allied forces to help her liberate the village of Veld. The team briefly celebrates, while Diana and Steve grow closer romantically and spend the night together.

The team learns a gala will be held at the nearby German High Command. Steve and Diana each infiltrate the party, with Steve intending to locate the gas and destroy it while Diana intends to kill Ludendorff, believing that he is Ares and killing him will end the war. Steve stops her to avoid jeopardizing the mission. Ludendorff then unleashes the gas on Veld, killing its inhabitants. Outraged, and blaming Steve for intervening, Diana pursues Ludendorff to a base where the gas is being loaded into a bomber aircraft bound for London. Diana fights and kills Ludendorff but is confused when his death does not stop the war.

Sir Patrick appears and reveals himself as Ares. He tells Diana that although he has subtly given humans ideas and inspirations using Ludendorff and Maru as pawns, it is ultimately their decision to cause violence as they are inherently corrupt. She attempts to kill Ares with the Godkiller sword but he destroys it. Ares reveals Diana to be the "Godkiller", as the daughter of Zeus and Queen Hippolyta, but he fails to persuade her to help him destroy humankind to restore paradise on Earth. While the two battle, the others on Steve's team destroy Maru's laboratory. Steve pilots the bomber carrying the gas to a safe altitude and detonates it, sacrificing himself. Ares attempts to direct Diana's rage and grief at Steve's death by convincing her to kill Maru, but memories of her experience with Steve cause her to realize that mankind has good within it. She spares Maru and redirects Ares' lightning into him, killing him. Later, the team celebrates the end of the war. In the present day, Diana sends an email to Bruce Wayne thanking him for the photographic plate of her and Steve, and reaffirms her new mission to protect and give to the world.

• Gal Gadot as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman:

An immortal Amazon princess, god, the daughter of Queen Hippolyta and of Zeus given to the Amazons to raise, and half-sister of Ares, contradicting the earlier claims of Diana being a "demigoddess Describing Wonder Woman and her appeal, Gadot said "She's relatable. She has the heart of a human and is very compassionate, but her experiences – or lack of them, her naivete, really – make her interested in everything around her and able to view the world in a way that we'd all like to: with a genuine curiosity. On Diana's relationship with her mother, Gadot said "Diana is a very opinionated girl. Her mother is very opinionated. Her mother is very protective as well, and they have, you know, the very natural clash that a mother has with her daughter, with their daughters, the first time they want to leave home. On taking on the role as Wonder Woman, Gadot stated "I feel very privileged that I got the opportunity to portray such an iconic, strong female character. I adore this character and everything that she stands for and everything that she symbolizes. On Diana going to the world, Gadot stated "When Diana comes to the real world she's completely oblivious about gender and society rules, that women are not equal to men. Describing Diana's relationship with her mother and aunts, Jenkins said "She is the only child they raised together. And their love for her manifests in a different way for each of them. On working with Gadot, Jenkins said "Gal quickly became the person I wanted to talk to about everything. We'd shoot together all day. And then on weekends, we'd be like, 'What do you want to do?' That's maybe not totally normal. Lilly Aspel was cast as the 8-year-old Diana and Emily Carey was cast as the 12-year-old Diana.

Baby Driver (2017)

Baby Driver is a 2017 action crime comedy film written and directed by Edgar Wright. It stars Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Eiza González, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, and Jon Bernthal. The plot follows Baby, a young getaway driver and music lover who must work for a kingpin.

Baby Driver was co-produced by Working Title Films, Big Talk Productions and Media Rights Capital, and was distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures and by TriStar Pictures in the US. It premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2017, and was released theatrically on June 28, 2017. The film received critical acclaim and has grossed $224 million worldwide against a production budget of $34 million, making it Wright's highest-grossing film as director.

Baby is a getaway driver in Atlanta, Georgia. He ferries crews of robbers assembled by Doc, a heist mastermind, to pay off a debt he incurred after stealing one of Doc's cars. When he was a child, a car accident killed his parents and left him with tinnitus, which he blocks out by listening to music on various iPods. Between jobs, he creates remixes from snippets of conversations he records, while caring for his deaf foster father Joseph. While visiting a local diner, he meets a waitress named Debora, and the two start dating.

His next robbery goes awry after an armed bystander chases them down, but Baby evades him and the police. Informed by Doc that they are now "straight", Baby quits his life of crime, and starts delivering pizzas. During a date with Debora at an upscale restaurant, Doc blackmails him into performing another heist at a post office, making veiled threats to Debora's safety should he refuse.

The crew consists of easy-going Buddy, his sharpshooter wife Darling, and trigger-happy Bats, who takes an immediate dislike to Baby. While the crew attempts to purchase illegal arms for the job, Bats realizes the dealers are police and opens fire, killing them all. Afterwards, Bats forces Baby to stop at Debora's diner, unaware of Baby and Debora's romance, and nearly kills her in a hold-up.

Doc, furious at the botched deal, tries to cancel the heist, but Baby convinces him to go through with it. He attempts to flee later that night, hoping to take Debora and leave Atlanta, but is stopped by Buddy and Bats, who have discovered his recordings and believe he is an informant. When they and Doc hear his mixtapes, they are convinced of his innocence.

During the heist, Bats kills a security guard. Disgusted, Baby refuses to drive the crew, causing Bats to beat him. Baby rams the car into rebar which impales Bats, killing him. The three flee the police on foot. After police kill Darling, Buddy blames Baby for her death, and vows to kill him. Baby steals another car and flees to his apartment. After leaving Joseph at an assisted living home, Baby drives to Debora's diner to pick her up, where he discovers Buddy waiting. Baby shoots Buddy and flees with Debora as the police close in.

Baby seeks help from Doc, who initially refuses to help as he blames Baby for ruining the heist. After seeing he truly loves Debora, Doc supplies them with cash and directions to get out of the country, stating that he was also in love once. Buddy ambushes them in the parking garage and hits and kills Doc with a stolen police car. A cat-and-mouse game ensues until Buddy has Baby at his mercy. Debora disarms Buddy with a crowbar and Baby shoots him with the pistol, causing him to fall to his death.

Fleeing Atlanta, Baby and Debora run into a police roadblock. Debora prepares to ram it, but Baby stops her and surrenders, telling her she is not a criminal. At Baby's trial, Joseph, Debora, and several people Baby saved during the robberies testify in his defense. Baby is sentenced to 25 years in prison with a parole hearing after five years. He receives postcards from Debora, who promises to wait for him. Baby is released and finds Debora waiting, and they kiss.

Cast

• Ansel Elgort as Baby / Miles, a young man with a love for music who works as the getaway driver for a rotating crew of bank robbers
  • Hudson Meek as young Baby
• Kevin Spacey as Doc, the mysterious kingpin of the rag-tag gang of bank robbers and a veteran criminal mastermind
• Jamie Foxx as Bats / Leon Jefferson III, an impulsive, violent member of Doc's gang
• Lily James as Debora, a young waitress who befriends Baby
• Jon Hamm as Buddy / Jason Van Horn, a handsome party animal and frequent member of Doc's gang
• Eiza González as Darling / Monica Castello, one of Doc's gang of bank robbers, Buddy’s lawless and scandalous wife and partner in crime
• Jon Bernthal as Griff, one of Doc's gang, who mocks Baby constantly
• Flea as Eddie "No-Nose", one of Doc's gang
• Lanny Joon as JD, one of Doc's gang
• CJ Jones as Joseph, Baby's deaf foster father
• Sky Ferreira as Baby's Mother
• Lance Palmer as Baby's Father
• Big Boi as Restaurant Patron ^]
• Killer Mike as Restaurant Patron 
• Paul Williams as "The Butcher
• Jon Spencer as Prison Guard
• Sidney and Thurman Sewell (The ATL Twins) as Hellcat Thug #1 and #2 (cameo)

Filmmaker Walter Hill makes a vocal cameo appearance as a courtroom interpreter during Baby's trial hearing near the end of the film. Wright has cited Hill's 1978 film The Driver as a major inspiration for Baby Driver.

Friend Request 2017

To its credit, "Friend Request" is upfront with its intentions and methods almost from the start. Our protagonist, a generic college student named Laura (Alycia Debnam-Carey), is watching a cat video on the feed of her non-specific social networking profile (It looks just like Facebook, just without the logo and with some of the nomenclature changed—"thumbs up" instead of "like" and "spread" instead of "share," for example). When she least expects it, the face of the cat transforms into a monstrous one, with sharp, pointy teeth and a roar. Yes, this is going to be one of those horror movies.

One could say that it doesn't disappoint, although one would also have to lower the bar of expectations to say that in a way that possesses any significance. Director Simon Verhoeven dutifully gives us multiple jump scares, in which an arm violently enters into frame or a face is suddenly in complete close-up on the screen. This is what the movie promises from the start, so there must be at least a few points awarded for truth in advertising, I suppose.

You probably know the drill by this point: The plot is a mystery, in which the characters—the ones who haven't been killed off, of course—have to figure out the reason that their friends are dying one at a time. In the process, some evil force is picking them off by supernatural means. The plot doesn't matter. The only requirement is that the screenplay (written by Matthew Ballen, Philip Koch, and Verhoeven) provides an angle that seems a bit different, if only to distract from how familiar the rest of the movie's game is.

The angle is that the supernatural killer is the spirit of a college girl named Marina (Liesl Ahlers), who committed suicide after Laura unfriended her on the safe-from-claims-of-copyright-infringement website. In Laura's defense, we learn from a lengthy, sort-of flashback that Marina was a cyber-stalker, who commented on every one of her posts, sent her repeated video chat requests, and started following her around in real life. Against Laura is the fact that Marina's own social networking profile was filled with clues about an unstable personality, such as unsettling photos of mangled faces and a video of someone stomping on a doll's head. Laura might have figured that out if she had scrolled down to the "See older posts" part of the page.

The movie's deaths are—uncomfortably, since it's simply a gimmicky hook—centered on suicide or, better, demonic possessions that make the deaths look like it. The ghost in the machine takes control of Laura's page, posting videos of her friends killing themselves in gruesome ways, starting with Marina, who hangs herself over a roaring fire.

As her online friends—all of whom the evil spirt tags in the posts—start to see the videos, they begin to unfriend Laura. It's probably an unintentional bit of social commentary that she still has hundreds of friends after two such videos are posted to her page. The last count we actually see has her hovering around 80 friends, and that's after three suicide videos appear on her page. This means that a few hundred people thought that someone posting two suicide videos was fine. Their limit, apparently, was a third video showing someone's bloody death.

Laura and her friends—including her boyfriend Tyler (William Moseley), her jealous ex Kobe (Connor Paolo), and her best friend Olivia (Brit Morgan)—look into Marina's past to determine how this is happening. All of the movie's mythology is explained in a flashback, which involves a coven of witches, a devastating fire, a boarding school, and a couple of child murders. None of it really matters, because the movie's sole purpose is to get each of the characters alone in a dark space, toss some unsettling sights and sounds their way, and, to top it off, have something pop on screen, with some loud growls and screams accompanying it.

There are flashes of inspiration here, such as repeated references to internet addiction (without any legitimate point, except that it literally will kill you), an unsettling and dynamic shot of rows of computer monitors illuminating a dark room with images of the face and eye of the spirit, and, most notably, a series of animations that tell the story of Marina's lonely, unfortunate past without the witchy hokum. These things aren't much, but when dealing with something as stale and formulaic as "Friend Request," you have to take what you can get.

Wind River 2017

Taylor Sheridan’s films take place in a mythical version of the American West that doesn’t exist anymore, if it ever really did. It’s a place where there are no rules beyond the ones people invent for themselves to survive—stretches of Texas and New Mexico that are equal parts brutal and beautiful.

Sheridan previously explored this terrain as the writer of Denis Villeneuve’s “Sicario” and David Mackenzie’s “Hell or High Water,” the latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Now, he’s directing for only the second time as well as writing with “Wind River,” which feels very much of a piece with those two previous films, even as it distinguishes itself with a vivid sense of place.

“Wind River” is full of vast, scrubby expanses that give way to pristine blankets of white, interrupted only by a snowmobile slashing a solitary path. You can hear the crunch of snow and feel the bitter chill, which runs so deep that it can be deadly. Sheridan drops us in and we know this place immediately; his storytelling is meaty but efficient, and his pacing moves along at a steadily engrossing clip before ultimately exploding in a startling blast of violence.

A moody procedural, “Wind River” is heavy with symbolism from the start—perhaps, too much so. When we first see Jeremy Renner’s Cory Lambert, a tracker well-versed in the Wyoming wilds, he’s lying on his belly in the snow, camouflaged with his rifle, picking off wolves that have been preying on sheep. He’s a protector because it’s his job, but as we learn throughout the course of the film, that calling has become deeply personal.

There’s specificity to the way the characters talk, a poetry that can be quite moving or it can clang on the ear. But Sheridan’s script can be just as powerful in its quiet moments like these—in what the characters don’t say to each other.

On one of Cory’s hunting expeditions, he comes across the frozen body of a young woman; we’d seen her at the film’s start, frantically running barefoot in the middle of the night under a crisp, full moon. He recognizes her as Natalie (Kelsey Asbille), the best friend of his teenage daughter, who also died mysteriously a few years earlier.

Since the death occurred on the Wind River reservation—and Natalie, like Cory’s daughter, was Native American—the tribal police get involved in the investigation, led by the great Graham Greene as the dryly humorous, no-nonsense chief. But so, too, do the feds, in the form of newbie FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen). She’s been sent from the Las Vegas office and is so ill-equipped for this place and this weather that she has to borrow snow gear—from the closet of Cory’s late daughter, which adds to the prevailing sense of grief.

“This isn’t the land of backup, Jane,” he says to her in explaining life on the reservation. “This is the land of: You’re on your own.”

And so as Cory works with Jane to unravel the mystery of what happened to Natalie in this remote, secretive land, he also must finally face what happened to his own child. (Cinematographer Ben Richardson, whose work includes the ravishing and dreamlike “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” helped create the richly atmospheric visuals.)

Sheridan handles the relationship between Jane and Cory deftly: They’re equals, but they also need and learn from each other. And while fellow Avengers Renner and Olsen have a natural, understated chemistry, Sheridan mercifully doesn’t throw their characters together in an awkward, needless romance.

Renner also has several powerful scenes with Gil Birmingham (who played a crucial supporting role in “Hell or High Water”) as Natalie’s grieving father, Martin. He’s all masculine stoicism and bitter swagger until he isn’t, and watching his proud veneer crumble is shattering.

At times, Sheridan has his characters spell out a little too clearly what they’re thinking and feeling, and that’s often the case in the exchanges between Cory and Martin. But the words are so beautiful and come from such a place of deep truth, it’s hard not to be moved, and they help give “Wind River” a simultaneous sense of timelessness and immediacy.

Stronger 2017

Not another inspirational true-life story, you might be forgiven for thinking when considering the new movie Stronger, about Jeff Bauman, who lost both his legs in the Boston Marathon bombing and identified suspects (later revealed to be the Tsarnaev brothers) to authorities.

The “inspirational true-life story” has become a bit of a picked-on genre in recent years, thanks to how many mediocre or even outright bad versions lean heavily on the schmaltz and sentimentality in hopes of winning Oscar gold. Think, for instance, of 2015’s Jennifer Lawrence vehicle Joy, which had all sorts of problems, but first and foremost an inability to tell the “normal woman triumphs over adversity to win her fortune” story in a way that earned its (would be) soaring climax.

Plus, Stronger hails from director David Gordon Green, whose work is often great but is, to put it kindly, hit-or-miss over the last few years. (His 2015 Oscar bid, Our Brand Is Crisis, sank without a trace for good reason.) Its star, Jake Gyllenhaal, can give performances that range from magnetic to misguided. And female lead Tatiana Maslany is terrific on TV’s Orphan Black but has never had a film role of this stature.

But fortunately, almost everything in Stronger works really well. Yes, it follows the inspirational true-life story format almost chapter and verse, right down to the part where Gyllenhaal breaks down weeping about how he can’t do it anymore. And yes, I could quibble with a few choices here and there, particularly when it comes to the movie’s score and a couple of its climactic scenes.

But Stronger just works, thanks to strong performances across the board and lovely, understated direction from Green (who’s tremendous at how he uses the frame to highlight his actors). It’s a great reminder why Hollywood keeps making movies like this and why the Oscars love them so much. For all future iterations on the form, however, Stronger offers one big lesson worth learning.

    Jake Gyllenhaal is terrific in Stronger. 

Roadside Attractions

In most inspirational true-life stories — but especially in the ones that fail — a character’s internal journey is often treated as secondary to their external one. And early on in Stronger, it feels like the same basic arc is being set up. Jeff (Gyllenhaal) wants to walk again. With the help of his on-again, off-again girlfriend Erin (Maslany) and high-tech prosthetics, he’s going to regain that ability.

But fairly early in this storyline, Green and screenwriter John Pollono make clear that the real journey Jeff has to undertake is the internal one. The experience of the bombing and losing his legs has left John with PTSD, and since he has trouble expressing his vulnerability or asking for help, his greatest struggle will prove to be a psychological one.

Now, there’s a simple reason most movies like this focus on external, rather than internal journeys: It’s really hard to depict an internal journey onscreen, and if you screw it up, it leads to histrionics that feel unbelievable at best and laughable at worst. What makes this journey work is how Gyllenhaal modulates every little movement he makes. By the time he has the obligatory “breaking down and weeping” scene, he’s built to it so beautifully that it doesn’t feel over the top. (His work reminded me of a slightly less internalized version of Casey Affleck’s Oscar-winning performance in Manchester by the Sea.)

But Green also contributes to the steady accumulation of emotion that is Gyllenhaal’s performance. Every time that Jeff tries to walk on his new prosthetic legs again, Green shoots it in a distancing wide shot, as if to underline how this process is all clinical, just a series of physical processes that he can figure out how to chain together if he keeps at it long enough. Green only goes in for close-ups when Jeff is in internal distress, the better to highlight Gyllenhaal’s performance, but also to underline the much harder problems Jeff has to face.

Stronger also subtly tweaks the eye-rolling “the love of one good woman can help a man overcome anything!” story arc that Maslany’s character would seem to invite. Erin really does help Jeff out, and Pollono’s script is terrific at highlighting how Jeff and Erin have a connection so strong that it keeps drawing them together, again and again, even when both know it’s not quite right. But said script also doesn’t let Jeff off the hook when he’s cruel to Erin — and she doesn’t, either. The best thing about Maslany’s performance is how she makes Erin’s boundaries clear and purposeful at all times, so she doesn’t simply get sucked into Jeff’s more obviously dramatic arc.

That could apply to so much in Stronger, though. It’s a movie about how a whole village of people mobilize to help Jeff, but in the end, only he can take the biggest step of all: admitting he needs those other people to help him before he falls into the dark ocean inside his own head. Stronger is designed to jerk tears, but its greatest feat is that it actually earns them in the end.

Stronger opens in theaters Friday, September 22.

The LEGO Ninjago Movie

In this big-screen NINJAGO adventure, the battle for NINJAGO City calls to action young Master Builder Lloyd, aka the Green Ninja, along with his friends, who are all secret ninja warriors. Led by Master Wu, as wise-cracking as he is wise, they must defeat evil warlord Garmadon, The Worst Guy Ever, who also happens to be Lloyd's dad. Pitting mech against mech and father against son, the epic showdown will test this fierce but undisciplined team of modern-day ninjas who must learn to check their egos and pull together to unleash their inner power of Spinjitzu.

• Rating:
  PG (for some mild action and rude humor)
• Genre:
  Action & Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Kids & Family
• Directed By:
  Charlie Bean
• Written By:
  Hilary Winston, Bob Logan, Paul Fisher
• In Theaters:
  Sep 22, 2017  Wide
• Box Office:
  $21,245,000
• Runtime:
  90 minutes
• Studio:
  Warner Bros. Pictures
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

A year has passed since Eggsy Unwin and the spy organisation Kingsman saved the world from Richmond Valentine's neurological wave broadcast. He has since taken his late mentor Harry Hart's title of Galahad and lives with Crown Princess Tilde of Sweden. On his way home he is ambushed by Charlie Hesketh, a former Kingsman trainee who lost his arm and vocal cords during the Valentine incident. Eggsy evades Charlie and his henchmen in a car chase across London, but Charlie's severed cybernetic arm hacks into the Kingsman servers through the car's computer system. While Eggsy is away in Sweden, a volley of missiles destroy the Kingsman headquarters and wipe out all of the agents in Britain.

Being the only surviving agents, Eggsy and Merlin follow the Doomsday protocol, which leads them to Statesman, a secret American organisation posing as a Bourbon whiskey distillery in Kentucky. There, they discover that Harry survived the Valentine's gunshot a year earlier, but is suffering from amnesia. Eggsy and Merlin are briefed by Statesman head Champagne about a secret terrorist organisation called The Golden Circle. They begin their mission by following Charlie's ex-girlfriend Clara Von Gluckfberg. When Statesman agent Tequila develops blue rashes, he is replaced by agent Whiskey as Eggsy's partner. Eggsy manages to plant a tracking device inside Clara, but his revelation of the mission to Princess Tilde strains their relationship. After several failed attempts to cure Harry's amnesia, Eggsy triggers Harry's memories by threatening to shoot a Yorkshire Terrier that resembles Harry's late dog.

Poppy Adams, head of world's largest drug cartel posing as a pharmaceutical company, broadcasts a message telling the world about a toxin she laced within every recreational drug available, which causes users to develop blue rashes before progressing through mania, paralysis, and ultimately, death. She also demonstrates the antidote on a captive Elton John and offers it to the world if the President of the United States ends his country's War on Drugs and offers her organisation immunity. The President decides to have every affected user quarantined, including his Chief of Staff, Fox. Eggsy, Harry, and Whiskey head to the antidote factory in Italy after intercepting a phone call to Charlie by Clara. Eggsy manages to steal an antidote sample, but it is broken by Whiskey during an ambush by The Golden Circle's henchmen. During the gunfight, Harry shoots Whiskey in the head, as he suspects that Whiskey is playing both sides, but Eggsy saves him with the same alpha-gel used to save Harry. Princess Tilde calls Eggsy in a state of mania, revealing that she has been affected. Eggsy, Harry, and Merlin discover the location of Poppy's hideout, "Poppy Land", in Cambodia and fly there to steal the remote control for the antidote drones.

Upon their arrival at Poppy Land, Eggsy steps on a land mine, but is saved by Merlin, who sacrifices himself while taking the lair's guards with him. Eggsy and Harry storm through the lair and Eggsy kills Charlie while Harry destroys Poppy's robotic guard dogs with the help of Elton. They secure the briefcase with the access code to the drones and inject Poppy with a more potent dose of her toxin. She gives them the password before succumbing to an overdose. Before they can activate the drones they are stopped by Whiskey, who, having previously lost his wife to crossfire from two drug users, is revealed to be working alone to ensure that all drug users are eliminated. Eggsy and Harry engage Whiskey in a grueling fight at Poppy's diner before he is killed. They release the antidote drones, saving millions of lives around the world.

In the aftermath, Chief of Staff Fox has the President impeached for conspiring to commit genocide on the drug victims. Champagne announces that Statesman has acquired a distillery in Scotland to help rebuild Kingsman. To avoid the confusion of two Kingsman agents using the codename "Galahad", Champagne offers either Eggsy or Harry the agent title of Whiskey, but they decline and Statesman tech support Ginger Ale steps in to take the role. Eggsy marries Princess Tilde, and Tequila moves to London to work for Kingsman.

Cast

• Colin Firth as Harry Hart / Galahad
• Julianne Moore as Poppy Adams
• Taron Egerton as Gary "Eggsy" Unwin / Galahad
• Mark Strong as Merlin
• Halle Berry as Ginger
• Elton John as himself
• Channing Tatum as Tequila
• Jeff Bridges as Champagne "Champ"
• Pedro Pascal as Whiskey
• Edward Holcroft as Charles "Charlie" Hesketh
• Hanna Alström as Crown Princess Tilde of Sweden
• Poppy Delevingne as Clara Von Gluckfberg
• Bruce Greenwood as the President of the United States
• Emily Watson as Chief of Staff Fox
• Björn Granath as the King of Sweden
• Lena Endre as the Queen of Sweden

Michael Gambon portrays Arthur, the head of Kingsman. Sophie Cookson returns as Roxanne "Roxy" Morton / Lancelot, a Kingsman secret agent and Eggsy's best friend, while footage from The Secret Service includes Samuel L. Jackson and Sofia Boutella as Richmond Valentine and Gazelle, respectively. Tobias Bakare and Thomas Turgoose return as Eggsy's friends Jamal and Liam, respectively, while Calvin Demba is introduced as another of Eggsy's friends, Brandon. Keith Allen and Tom Benedict Knight feature as Charles and Angel, two of Poppy's henchmen, while Mark Arnold portrays General McCoy, an advisor to the President of the United States.

Production

Near the release of Kingsman: The Secret Service, Mark Millar and Matthew Vaughn stated that a sequel would be possible if the first film was to perform well at the box office, and Vaughn expressed interest in returning to direct.

Vaughn also noted that he had hoped to have Firth back in the sequel, though it was later stated that Firth would not be returning.

On 29 April 2015, Fox announced that a sequel was in production, but that it was unclear if Vaughn would return due to his interest in directing a Flash Gordon film On 11 June 2015, Vaughn told Yahoo that he had begun writing the script for the sequel, and that he could return to direct  In September 2015, Millar reiterated that the sequel was in development, and that Vaughn was looking for ways to bring Firth back without sacrificing the integrity of the story. Later that month, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Egerton had also signed on for a new Robin Hood film, which was then set to begin shooting in February 2016 Egerton's schedule was thus in conflict with the Kingsman sequel. However, in mid-October, it was confirmed that scheduling issues had been settled between both studios. Lionsgate began Robin Hood's production right after Egerton wrapped filming on Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which began in May 2016.^[11]

FilmingOn 17 February 2016, it was revealed that Julianne Moore was in negotiations to play the villain in the film. On 10 March 2016, Halle Berry was cast in the film, in a role that later turned out to be the Statesmen's tech support. In late March, Vaughn confirmed Berry's and Moore's casting, as well as the title, Kingsman: The Golden Circle. On 8 April 2016, Pedro Pascal was cast in the film as Jack Daniels, and on the same day, a promotional poster was released featuring Firth's character's glasses, confirming Firth's return for the film Firth's return was later officially confirmed on 11 July 2016  Channing Tatum confirmed his casting through his Twitter account, while Varietyreported that Elton John was in talks for a role. In late April, Vaughn talked about writing the sequel, and stated "writing this was the hardest thing I've ever done. Jeff Bridges was added to the cast on 28 May 2016. Vinnie Jones announced on Twitter that he had been cast, though he did not appear in the finished film.^[20]

Principal photography on the film began on 15 May 2016 in Birmingham. Filming also took place in Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden. On 13 September 2016, Kingsman: The Golden Circle completed initial filming. Additional footage was filmed on location in London in December 2016.

Marketing

On 20 July 2017, FOX released an animated Kingsman/Archer crossover short film featuring Eggsy and Sterling Archer.

Release

20th Century Fox originally scheduled Kingsman: The Golden Circle for a summer release date of 16 June 2017, but pushed the film back to 6 October 2017. The film was then moved up to 20 September in the UK and 22 September 2017 in the US, likely to avoid competition with Blade Runner 2049. The film had an IMAX release.

Box office

As of 24 September 2017, Kingsman: The Golden Circle has grossed $39 million in the United States and Canada and $61.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $100.2 million, against a production budget of $104 million.

In North America, the film was released alongside The Lego Ninjago Movie and Friend Request, and was projected to gross $40–45 million from 4,003 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $3.4 million from Thursday night previews at 3,100 theaters, up from the $1.4 million made by the first film, and $15.3 million on its first day. It went on to open to $39 million, an increase over the first film’s $36.2 million debut and topping the box office.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 51%, based on 176 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Kingsman: The Golden Circle offers more of everything that made its predecessor so much fun, but lacks the original's wild creative spark.^] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews  Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, the same score earned by its predecessor.

Writing for Uproxx, Amy Nicholson called the film better than the first, writing: "The Golden Circle has matured just enough. It’s doubled down on the mayhem and hammered out the tone. Everything is sincere even when it’s insane. Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars and wrote, "The stunts defy the laws of gravity, but are no less fun for that; watch out for the fight on the ski lift. Even when Kingsman: The Golden Circle goes off the rails, and it inevitably does, this cracked caper wears you down with action and giggles. Sometimes overkill can hurt so good. Wendy Ide, reviewing the film for The Guardian, gave it 1/5 stars and called it "a knowing sneer of a movie that shrugs off its plot holes along with a particularly unsavoury attitude to violence and a tendency to use female characters as the decorative punchline to jokes.

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 1.5/4 stars and said, "Kingsman: The Golden Circle offers everything – several bored Oscar winners; two scenes featuring death by meat grinder; Elton John, mugging in close-up – except a good time. Writing for RogerEbert.com, Glenn Kenny gave the film 0/4 stars, saying: "As action-packed as the movie is, it feels like it’s six hours. That’s in part because the pacing is so spavined; the movie lurches twitchily from set piece to set piece and spends inordinate amounts of time on shots of its sharp-dressed characters slow-motioning into the widescreen frames showing off accessories that will be sold to you by various companies in various Kingsman tie-ins all over the Internet.