Everyone has been going on about how we’re going to get superhero film fatigue because very soon Marvel will be releasing three films a year. Added onto that DC will be building their universe while Fox are aiming to make their own X-Men universe with various spin offs. But in fact, I think it’s the spy genre we’re going to burn out soon. After all, so far this year we’ve had Kingsman: The Secret Service, Spy and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. And already released in cinemas is the king of the spies James Bond’s latest flick Spectre. So the reboot of the classic TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E has a very tough task just to stand out.
In the depths of the cold war, CIA operative Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill, Man of Steel) manages to extract Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina) in order to try and find where her father Udo (Christian Berkel, Inglourious Basterds) is. It turns out that Nazi sympathiser Victoria Vinciguerra (Elizabeth Debicki, The Great Gatsby) has Udo and she is planning to use him to make a nuke for her. Fearing a world ending event, Solo teams up with KGB agent Illya Kuryakin (Arnie Hammer, The Lone Ranger) to stop her.
One thing that strikes you instantly about this film is that it is drenched in the 60s. By that I mean the film isn’t just set in that time period, it’s sending a love letter to that time period. The fashion, the cars, the music. It’s obvious that the director Guy Ritchie (Snatch) loves it and has decided use the film to transport us back there. It’s a great choice too. I complained about Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation not having a particular style, but this film is all about the style. The film is just plain cool and is loving it.
Making the style even improves the action. Ritchie has always been good at this, but he ramps it up for this film. It’s all very quick, I’m pretty sure at some points the film is speeded up, and it’s just a lot of fun to watch. The punches aren’t particularly hard hitting like the stylistic violence in Kingsman, but that isn’t what Ritchie is going for here. He wants us to be eating our popcorn cheering our heroes on, not flinching in pain at the punch Solo just got. In that way, this film owes even more to the 60s because that was the key thing their blockbusters focused on, not the extra depth our films offer now. Not that either way is better to be honest.
But while the style is great and the action fun, what I really enjoy is the chemistry between the two leads. Yes, I realise that having your two leads hate each other then be forced to work together and slowly grow to like each other is one of the oldest clichés in the book, but it works in this film. That’s because of the great performance by Cavill and Hammer. It’s amazing how the Brit Cavill has been doing so well at being the ideal American hero, firstly as Superman in Man of Steel and now as Solo in this film. He’s the suave American every man over the Atlantic wants to be. And Hammer is also great fun as the Russian Illya, who actually does do a good accent which was a nice surprise. They are just great fun to watch together.
The only issue with the characters are that they are thinly drawn. Solo is basically an American James Bond, suave and a womaniser with very few actual flaws. Illya is an angry Russian but he is the best character in the film because of his romance with Gabby, which is very well done. It again starts with dislike, but there aren’t many clichés from there on in. To go any further would spoil the story, but Hammer does some properly good acting to sell some very nice and also some very sad moments.
But the biggest issue of the film is the plot itself and mainly the fact the film isn’t that bothered with it. Oh occasionally Waverly (Hugh Grant, About a Boy) shows up and pushes the plot forward with some exposition, but really this film is concerned with other things. As in, looking cool. Now the plot isn’t terrible, it’s a nice little spy plot with the right number of twists which I admit surprised me, but the film pushes it to the bottom of its priorities. Who needs more time explaining the story when you can have more shots of cars from the 60s while in Rome!
How much you like The Man From U.N.C.L.E depends on how much you care about style and substance. The style here is brilliant, you won’t watch a cooler film this year. It looks brilliant and the action is very fun. But there is very little substance with the characters thinly drawn and the film seemingly not caring about the plot. Think of it like a fast food meal, it’s not very healthy but you do enjoy it.
Best Moment: I was howling with laughter at the conclusion to the interrogation scene. You’ll see.
Worst Moment: Honestly, I can’t really pinpoint any really bad bits, so maybe we’ll just pick the exposition scenes as the plot is the weakest element of the film.
4/5
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