Meet Agent Tequila in this new clip for Kingsman: The Golden Circle

In his first-ever sequel as director, Vaughn plunges back into the world of Kingsman, a British network of well-tailored spies with gadgets to die for, and teenage tearaway-turned-recruit Eggsy (Taron Egerton).

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is released in United Kingdom cinemas on September 20. Whether or not Vaughn believes himself to be a legend, his latest film certainly suffers from being rather too pleased with itself. I won’t get into specifics for the sake of leaving you unspoiled, but just think about that toy store again.

The Secret Service has a fairly succinct premise: an ultra-violent, laddish James Bond crossed with My Fair Lady, from Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn. When shit hits the fan at her base, Elton John becomes under the impression that there is a rescue mission underway; what follows is beyond hilarious and entertaining.

This is far from the pair’s first outing together. Those courageous enough to give it a go will be put through their paces answering questions based on circumstances the Kingsman themselves faced in both the first and upcoming second movie. From their Wild West-style weaponry to their bourbon distillery headquarters, the Statesman prove an amusing exaggeration of the frontier justice warrior image America often projects to the world.

It’s a film so cartoonishly outsized that it nearly renders the first film restrained by comparison. His grand exit however, features him saving Colin Firth.

Following the first film’s teaming of iconic stars Michael Caine, Samuel L Jackson, Mark Hamill and a host of celebrity cameos, “Kingsman 2″ turns up with a frankly extraordinary cast.

This brings them to their USA equivalent in a functioning distillery, the Statesmen; opening the doors to a stellar cast including Channing Tatum as Tequila, Halle Berry as Ginger, Pedro Pascal’s Whiskey and their almighty “Champ”, Jeff Bridges. “I’m pretty sure no one understood anything that I said in the whole movie”, he explains. Every crass or tone-deaf moment – including a sexual encounter between Eggsy and a socialite, played by Poppy Delevingne, that at best feels entirely misjudged and at worst a complete betrayal of Eggsy’s cheeky but ultimately quite sweet character – is matched by a wonderfully droll one-liner or nugget of razor-sharp satire. The sequel gives us the gimmicks but no interesting conflict. On the one hand, the film questions our lack of empathy, even having a character point out in dialogue that “whether they broke the law or not, those [drug users] are human beings”. Unfortunately, the president thinks wiping out junkies is a great idea, even when he finds them among his closest aides. That experience, in movie form, is Kingsman: “The Golden Circle“.

Plotwise Kingsman: The Golden Circle opens with the titular spy organization viciously attacked and almost wiped out with the exception of Eggsy and Merlin who stow away to their backup safe zone which happens to be in Kentucky where a similar terrorist fighting organization called the Statesmen was formed the same day originally as Kingsman. But they rely too much on gadgetry. He sulks. Then, we see him spared by a couple of killer robotic dogs, because he is Elton John, after all, and then on national TV, his face veiny blue from taking poisoned drugs, stamping his feet angrily in a tiny cage.

Then there’s a weird scene everybody will be talking about.