Kingsmen 2 : The Golden Circle - 4/10 - I really enjoyed the "sleeper hit" first film and I think this one struggles with the expectation TBH. It felt overly long and slow paced with a very predictable "twist" ending which was very obviously set-up. I also felt the supporting cast were mis-used and wasted for the most part, especially Halle Berry & Julianne Moore. I did like the few action scenes and felt they were handled as well as the first film, but there just wasn't enough of them within the very long runtime. I also liked anti-James Bond feel that was carried over from the first but I felt the constant flip-flopping of Eggsy's character from Spy to Chav to Spy a bit forced.
Overall I didn't feel it lived up to the first film and that, looking back, most of the cast/crew would probably agree.
Atomic Blonde - 6/10 - My one big issue, despite liking the film, is that it's shown as a post-action interview (aka a flashback), meaning you know the main character "Lorriane" survives the events of the film which really sucks the threat she faces out of the film and I really think the film suffers for it. The script is tight with barely any wasted moments, Charlize Theron is very good as a female "Jason Bourne" type spy and James McAvoy seemed to be having lots of fun playing a slightly deranged/burned out spy. The stand out for me was the action scenes which seemed to be done largely by the actors themselves rather than stuntmen which was good to see , especially the last fight scene in the stairwells which was particularly brutal. The extra sub-plot about a British mole felt redundant along with the unnecessary twist ending.
Overall I liked it despite being a fairly limited film but the use of flashback just ruined any suspense for me.
6 Days - 4/10 - The Iranian Embassy siege has never seemed so bland despite the action scenes at the end. I'd read Rusty's book (on which the film is based) so I was very surprised to see to many mistakes being made when you have both a book to follow and the actual person on set as a technical advisor. Despite feeling like I was constantly saying "thats not right" most of the way through the film I did enjoy the tension during the negotiation phase and thought Mark Strong did a really good job but Jamie Bell (playing Rusty) and the guy playing John McAleese (the two main SAS characters) were pretty poor/bland, and the COBRA scenes felt overly dramatised. When the action does finally kick-off I felt there was several scenes which were very quickly glossed over and that their omission/lack of detail hurt the story (male hostages being shot in the Telex room & the final stairwell death). I also didn't feel the film needed the Kate Adie sub-plot taking up so much screentime considering how minor it was to the whole story.
Overall the negotiation scenes carried the film quite well until the inevitable showdown but the constant amount of mistakes kept drawing me out of the film.