Taron Egerton in Twentieth Century Fox’s ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ Credit: Photo Credit: Giles Keyte – TM & © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

At the beginning of the open-to-the-public showing of Matthew Vaughn’s live-action comic-book Kingsman: The Golden Circle, we were all cautioned that this was a preview for the working press. So turn off all cell phones, not just silenced, no chatter permitted, all crying babies out. The press must not be distracted. The press must be able to hear the dialogue.

Throughout the film, I thought of Muriel Spark’s novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. (Bear with me a moment, and you'll see the relevance.) Miss Brodie, a private girls’ school teacher in Scotland, comments to her students, “For those that like that sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like.”

That tautology sums up quite nicely the whole energy of Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

Indeed, if you like an aesthetic of excess and redundancy, where more is still not enough, where stylish and grotesque vie for equal attention, then this two-hour-and-20-minute film will appeal.

Taron Egerton, Colin Firth and Pedro Pascal in Twentieth Century Fox’s ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ Credit: Photo Credit: Giles Keyte – TM & © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

It’s replete with an all-star cast, but frankly, it's an all-star waste — with few exceptions, most are just video game pieces to move around at a hyper-frenetic pace. There's plenty of techno-wizardry, with tiresome gadgets, meaningless contrivances with lots of CGI-saturated weaponry and assaults. Let's add a studio simulation of a Cambodian rainforest, silly and nonsensical talk about Doomsday Protocol, and hoary spy tropes from James Bond 007 Get Smart Man From Uncle Spy vs Spy Mission Impossible, ad nauseam. Don't forget the grisly meat-grinder human-flesh sandwiches, amphetamine-fueled chase scenes through London with breakaway cabs, violently stylized barroom brawls involving lassos as weapons and six-shooters that become 12-shooters. Then there's the stunning, audience-pleasing fingertip-mounted tracking device to be planted into the socialite’s genitals as the camera follows the placement down down down inside the lace panties and through the vulva, on deep into the twists and turns of the blood-red vaginal canal. There are laughs aplenty when the out-of-control ski-lift gondola car plunges toward a retirement home deep in the Italian Alps (who knew?), threatening the well-heeled geriatric clientele sunning on the patio. One terrified geezer admits, “That scared the shit out of me… it’s the first decent shit I’ve had in three weeks!”

Ah, yes… the dialogue we don't want the press to miss.

Kingsman: The Secret Service was a 2014 action-adventure success; audiences flocked to see this spy saga based on a comic book. It featured a hidden and independent British intelligence agency called Kingsman, now training new recruits just as a new global technology threat emerges. Back then, Colin Firth was the sartorially stylish leader Harry Hart (aka Galahad) with a lethal umbrella, assisted by Merlin (Mark Strong), a fastidious Scottish tech guru. Taron Egerton as Eggsy was the cocky, boyish, hoodie-wearing recruit from the rough side of town, now groomed with a Pygmalion makeover. Samuel L. Jackson was bad guy Valentine, who orchestrated the famous church massacre scene set to Lynyrd Skynyrd. He managed to control the world via a device planted in the necks of unsuspecting victims that caused their heads to explode when they think too much, all orchestrated to Elgar’s Pomp & Circumstance.

For sure, the film had its exhilarating moments.

Success = Sequel.

Flash forward three years and Kingsman: The Golden Circle once again features Firth (killed in the first movie, then brought back to life in the second by a remarkable gel pack to the head), again with Taron Egerton (the absolute best thing about this film) as the now-matured and wiser Galahad 2.0. Mark Strong reprises his role as tech-savvy Merlin. This time it’s Julianne Moore as the bad gal Poppy, the leader of a drug cartel based in Cambodia out to dominate the world through population control via a particularly toxic substance laced into illicit drugs that maims, then paralyzes, then kills the user. In this sequel, the British spy headquarters is destroyed, so we bring in a previously unknown and equally secretive American version of Kingsman called Statesman (headquartered, of course, in a Kentucky bourbon distillery). Both agencies unite to defeat the common worldwide enemy.

Exhilaration = Exhaustion.

Channing Tatum and Halle Barry in Twentieth Century Fox’s ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ Credit: Photo Credit: Giles Keyte – TM & © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

As the tagline for the movie says, "From Suits to Boots," meaning with the addition of various secret agents — Tequila (Channing Tatum, who spends much time in his boxers in a cryobath), Champagne (Jeff Bridges, just called Champ as champagne is, well, too fancy), Ginger Ale (a wasted Halle Berry who's little more than a GPS sat nav behind a desk) and Whiskey (Pedro Pascal, channeling Burt Reynolds and the Marlboro Man) — the country Kentucky ambiance provides American guts and grit to the story. Poppy, as the e-pat embodiment of entrepreneurial know-how, is making America great again in her Poppyland empire-in-exile. It's an all-American neon-kitschy prison with a Martha Stewart vibe — beauty salon, concert hall, hot dog shop, bowling alley, lavish '50s diner, and more. Then there's the held-for-hostage Sir Elton John (don't ask) as himself, with his kick-ass (literally) platform shoes.

If you like this sort of thing, then this is the sort of thing you’ll like.