Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Dinner and a Movie

By Steve Herte

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (20th Century Fox, 2017) – Director: Matthew Vaughn. Writers: Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn (s/p); Mark Millar & Dave Gibbons (comic book, The Secret Service). Stars: Taron Egerton, Edward Holcroft, Gordon Alexander, Mark Strong, Hanna Alstrom, Calvin Demba, Thomas Turgoose, Tobi Bakare, Julianne Moore, Keith Allen, Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry, Emily Watson, Channing Tatum, Tom Benedict Knight, Colin Firth, Michael Gambon, Sophie Cookson, Pedro Pascal & Bjorn Granath. Color, Rated R, 141 minutes.

The sequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service in 2015 is more of the same. The same outrageous weaponry, a world-saving mission, violent battles and sadistic villains. But this year’s movie has more special effects, tends closer to Austin Powers than James Bond and it has Sir Elton John doing high flying kung fu kicks wearing silver platform shoes and a feathered outfit that makes him look like a canary who lost in a paintball war.

Though it’s been two years, the time of this movie is one year after the first edition. Hero Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Egerton) starts off battling arch nemesis Charlie Hesketh (Holcroft) in the back seat of a Kingman cab while being chased by four cars full of machine gun toting baddies. Eggsy survives though his driver does not and Charlie is flung through the wind screen (windshield in America) and his mechanical artificial arm is torn off (an appendage he acquired in the first movie). Our hero makes it to safety by driving into Hyde Park Lake holding his breath all the way. But the mechanical arm remotely plugs into Kingsman’s computer system and uses Eggsy’s password to find the location of all Kingsman properties.

When Eggsy gets cleaned up he meets with his best friend Jamal (Bakare) and Liam (Turgoose) and his girlfriend, Sweden’s Crown Princess Tilde (Alstrom) before attending a dinner with her parents, the King of Sweden (Granath) and his wife.

Meanwhile, on the top of an extinct volcano in Cambodia Poppy Adams (Moore), CEO of a worldwide pharmaceutical company and a major world drug dealer is in her own diner in “Poppyland” and she’s testing her newest henchman Angel (Knight) for his obedience by having him put henchman Charles (Allen) in her meat grinder and feeding him a hamburger made from the result.

As Eggsy enjoys success impressing the King and Queen at dinner, stinger missiles are destroying all Kingsman headquarters in the U.K., killing Arthur (Gambon) and his best friend, Roxanne “Roxy” Morton aka Lancelot (Cookson). The only one besides himself who survives the onslaught is tech genius Merlin (Strong). Together they must execute the Doomsday Protocol, which leads them to a bottle of Statesman Kentucky bourbon. Not recognizing the clue until they’re both plotzed, they eventually travel to Kentucky to meet their American counterparts, the Statesmen.

In England, the Kingsmen were all named after Knights of the Round Table. The Statesmen, on the other hand are named after spirits and drinks, having made their profits in the liquor market. After a brief scuffle with Tequila (Tatum), they meet Chief Champagne “Champ” (Bridges) and his aide Ginger Ale (Berry). Eggsy and Merlin are also shocked to see their old comrade Harry Hart/Galahad (Firth) at the Statesman compound who they assumed dead when Raymond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) shot him in the first episode. But Harry has amnesia and wants to be a lepidopterist until Eggsy brings back his memory by threatening to shoot a cute Yorkshire terrier puppy, reminding him of his dog, Mr. Pickles (currently stuffed and sitting on his mantle).

They learn Poppy’s plan. She’s infected all the drugs she’s distributed with a deadly virus that causes a blue rash, mania, paralysis and death in a few days. She wants the President of the United States to legalize all drugs before she releases a fleet of drones carrying the antidote. When Tequila comes down with the blue rash, Ginger puts him in cold storage and Champ replaces him with Whiskey (Pascal), whom Galahad mistrusts.

Together, they have to get the antidote from the plant atop Mont Blanc in the Italian Alps, fight off an army of Poppy’s minions and travel to Cambodia to save Tequila, Liam, U.S. Chief of Staff Fox (Watson) and Princess Tilde, while the problem is being ignored by the President, who thinks he’s getting the druggies off the streets.

Like a James Bond film, it’s action end to end. Unlike a James Bond film, the word suave is just a joke. Harry keeps having visions of butterflies at critical moments and Tilde has somehow managed to lose the Swedish accent she had in the previous movie. It’s silly, but tries to be serious. There are chuckles and one big laugh after a perilous situation that is unexplainably averted. Where did that parachute come from and how did Eggsy know it existed?

I enjoyed Kingsman: The Golden Circle (which explains the title with the solid gold tattoo brutally injected onto all Poppy’s minions) but still think it could have been cut down to less than two hours easily and could have minimized or eliminated the ubiquitous vulgarity (the R rating is well deserved). The special effects and soundtrack would have carried the film by themselves.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Martini glasses.

aRoqa

206 9^th Avenue, New York

www.aroqanyc.com

When I learned that aRoqa has only been open for about three months I could understand why (or how) my reservation was not on the tablet held by the server in charge of reservations. Thank goodness I keep a printout of my confirmation specifically requesting a regular table.

Per their website aRoqa has been “merging Indian flavors with the global palate.” The menu reflects this blending. All of the dishes have Indian titles while incorporating ingredients from other cuisines.

Michaela, my server, apologized for being so busy and left the menus. The restaurant is rather narrow and has ten tables (tops), most in the bar area and a few in the back. My table was just beyond the end of the bar with a view of the sparsely decorated rear room. I guess that’s why they keep it so darkly lit. I had to use my flashlight to read either menu.

When Michaela returned I ordered the Persephone cocktail (gin, pomegranate juice, rosemary simple syrup and lime juice, garnished with mint leaves). It was refreshing and citrus-y (didn’t know the gin was there) and a great attitude adjuster. I needed that after the goof with the reservation.

Michaela explained that all the all the appetizers were tapas-sized as well as the dishes classified under “From the Chef’s Table,” and that a person with a good enough appetite could conceivably have three before the main course. After a few questions and a couple of recommendations from Michaela, I had made up my mind.

I finished my first cocktail and wanted a more serious drink, so I ordered the Silk Road cocktail (bourbon, curry infused yellow chartreuse and fresh lemon juice). The exotic flavor and spiciness of the drink was the perfect precursor to an Indian dinner. The wine list, though short, was impressively well-priced. I chose the 2014 Prieler Blaufränkisch Ried Johanneshöhe from Neusiedlersee, Austria. A deep burgundy with a delicate nose and bold blackberry and cherry accents. It formed a blanket around my first dish and tasted like the two should always be served together.

For my first dish I decided to go for the Vindaloo Momos – pork dumplings, bacon crumble, and green apples in a vindaloo sauce. The three dumplings were tender and meaty with that wonderful bacon flavor and just a tang from the apples. The rich brown sauce added fire to the dish, but not so much as to create a volcano in your mouth. And, as I said, the wine embraced the spice without increasing it as a Zinfandel would.

My next two dishes were recommended by Michaela: Kataifi Mushrooms – three different wild mushrooms wrapped in crispy saffron shredded phyllo dough as croquettes with goat cheese elish. They were remarkable: earthy, sweet, tangy and tart all at the same time, but mostly a mushroom-y delight.

Next was the Parsi Chimbori – beer battered crab, tomato pickle relish, garnished with a slice of pickled red pepper. The crab meat was butter-smooth and the coating crisp and delicious. The relish just added a touch of tartness to the normally sweet flavor. I loved it.

My main course, the aRoqa Duck Leg Confit, shared the plate with Mappas coconut curry, string hoppers (a hot water dough pressed out in circlets from a string mould onto little wicker mats and then steamed, a kind of noodle) and poppadums, garnished with purple pansy petals. At first glance I thought, “Is this all the duck? Just the leg?” But it was surprisingly enough with the very-filling string hoppers and excellent creamy sauce. My bread dish was the Shikampuri Kulcha – stuffed with minced lamb. Perfect. It came with a tangy dipping sauce that I used sparingly because the bread itself was so flavorful.

Only one dessert had the restaurant name on it and, being a first-timer, I had to try the aRoqa Daulat Ki Chaat – saffron milk foam, baba au rum, and blackberries. The white crock it was served in was smoking with dry ice in the lower half making it look like something the Addams family would serve. As most Indian desserts are, it was sweet and delicate and the berries were the right hint of fruit.

Another server asked if I needed anything else and when I started to order the Matcha Superior tea, he shocked me by revealing that there was no coffee or tea because “the machine” had broken down. Somebody tell me, who depends on a machine to brew tea? I wanted to run into the kitchen and give them the recipe. And the menu listed seven interesting teas and seven coffees. Good thing I still had some of my wine left.

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