Kingsman: The golden Circle

OUT 29 January / CERT 15 / 141 Mins

Like a kid hopped up on Haribo, Matthew Vaughn’s sequel to his endearingly deranged 2014 spy caper bounces around from setpiece to set-piece in frankly dizzying fashion as Taron Egerton’s Eggsy and Colin Firth’s back-from-the-dead Harry Hart just say no to Julianne Moore’s evil drug dealer. It may lack the cohesion and some of the charm of its predecessor, and Vaughn’s dedication to giving audiences sights they’ve never seen before can sometimes finger the boundaries of bad taste, but it continues to have a verve, and a nerve, sorely lacking from modernday Bond. And, in the sight of Elton John, dressed head-to-toe in a bird costume, smiling at the camera as he smacks an evil henchman in the face with a flying kick, it boasts my favourite shot from any movie released last year. Or, perhaps, any movie.