The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is the latest movie based on a long dormant TV series and considering the only way to make these types of movies successful, by calling it Mission Impossible, then you better lower your expectations. But then raise your expectations because this is a TV series adaptation being directed by the kinetic Guy Ritchie with the new Superman, The Winklevoss Twins (even though that's actually just one guy) and the chick who wowed everyone in Ex Machina as the leads. Then Lower your expectations again because it's good, but it has its issues. It's fun, but a dull kind of fun.
Set in the sixties during the Cold War Era, we find Cavill's American Super-Secret Agent being forced to team up with a KGB man-mountain played by Armie Hammer in order to stop some wealthy aristocrats from building and detonating an nuclear bomb. Along the way they collect Gaby, a Russian car mechanic played by Alicia Vikander, who is mostly an unlikable character which is unfortunate considering she’s such a great actress.
Now I'm a big fan of Cavill and if I'm being honest, he frequents a lot of unexplainable homo-erotic bare-chested Cavill dreams, but unfortunately he's just too bland in this role. Don't get me wrong, he's handsome, he knows how to rock a suit, he looks the part, but, and it kills me to say this, in this role, he really is a charisma-vacuum. Mostly this is down to how he chooses to deliver his lines, it's all very stilted and wooden. I don’t necessarily think it’s his fault, sometimes paying homage to the era can be a downfall to your performance. Admittedly, Armie Hammer is funny, intimidating and probably the best asset the film has. In hindsight, he would have been a much better lead when compared with Mr. Charisma-Vacuum.
The film does look good, but the cinematography lacks the frenetic visual style and the editing flare that Ritchie often employs and this feels incredibly restrained by comparison to previous efforts. This guy works best on smaller budget films like the classics Lock, Stock, Snatch and more recently Rock n’ Rolla but even in the Sherlock Holmes series you could still feel the energy he can pump into a film. This movie unfortunately lacks a lot of the pace that you normally get with a Guy Ritchie picture. You will find yourself looking at your watch more than once despite the filmmakers best efforts and just when you think the film is about to end, there's still another 15 minutes to go...
Another frustrating element of the movie is that a lot of the action chooses to cut away and leave it to your imagination, which would be fine normally but you know that Guy Ritchie has a better imagination than you when it comes to things like this so you can't help but feel short changed. The film can be enjoyable, but knowing that it's a Guy Ritchie movie you can't help but feel like you are getting something less than you deserve. This film could have really benefited from some of the energy that Mathew Vaughn brought earlier this year to Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Ultimately one of the biggest issues is that the film is attempting to use nostalgia for a show that's target audience probably don't go to the movies nowadays and the current movie going public don't know of the shows existence in the first place. So it’s a hard sell, especially when other movies have done the Spy genre better in more recent years. So going back to my original point, you might enjoy this film if you forget that it’s a Guy Ritchie film and if you keep your expectations low. I mean really low, like in your socks low.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. gets Two and a Half Stars (or Two and a Half confusing homo-erotic bare-chested Henry Cavill dreams...)
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