2015 has been a banner year for the spy genre and what’s
even more impressive is the fact that all of the major spy films that have been
released this year are all very much different in regards to execution. The
year kicked off with ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’, which embraced the
campier/over-the-top atmosphere of the genre that had been abandoned in recent
years. Then in June there was ‘Spy’, a comedic flick that was surprisingly
well-shot for a film of that genre. And just a few weeks ago, the ‘Mission
Impossible’ franchise returned with a bang with yet another excellent
installment in the form of ‘Rogue Nation’. Of course we have the next Bond
film, ‘Spectre’, coming out later this year but for now we come to the latest
2015 spy flick, ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’. Like ‘Kingsman’, it harkens back to
the old-school era of the genre. In fact, this is actually based off of a TV series
of the same name which ran from 1964 to 1968 on NBC and starred Robert Vaughn
and David McCallum as American agent Napoleon Solo and Russian agent Illya
Kuryakin, respectively, polar opposites who find themselves working together as
part of the international espionage organization known as the United Network
Command for Law and Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.). Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer
take on these famous roles in director Guy Ritchie’s modern-day adaptation. And
while the film may ultimately lack the depth of the other spy films we’ve seen
this year, it still manages to be a pretty darn entertaining action flick,
mainly due to Ritchie’s talents as a visual director.
In the midst of the Cold War in 1963, CIA agent Napoleon
Solo (Henry Cavill) helps German mechanic Gabby Teller (Alicia Vikander) escape
from East Berlin in order to get her to help him and his superiors track down
her father, a Nazi scientist who had recently been working for the U.S.
government. But during their escape, they find themselves being pursued by KGB
agent Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer), who they barely manage to get away from.
The following day, Solo and Kuryakin suddenly find themselves being paired together
by their superiors in a joint venture in order to investigate the owners of an
Italian shipping company for whom Gabby’s uncle Rudi (Sylvester Groth) works
for, Alexander (Luca Calvani) and Victoria (Elizabeth Debicki) Vinciguerra, a
couple with ties to former Nazis who are using Gabby’s father to build them an
atomic bomb. Despite their obvious contempt for one another, as well as the
fact that they’re each given private instructions by their respective superiors
to steal a vital piece of computer data for their governments and kill their
partner if necessary, Solo and Kuryakin are forced to work together with the
help of Gabby, who poses as Kuryakin’s fiancé, in order to prevent the Vinciguerras
from getting the chance to use their nuke.
The film’s visuals are easily its biggest strength.
Obviously the film’s production design is excellent in its period style, very
much capturing the look and feel of the spy films of the 60’s just like how
‘Kingsman’ did a great job in harkening back to the more over-the-top tone and
plotting of those films. Compared to some of the other spy films this year,
this film is much simpler as far as the action sequences are concerned. In
other words, you won’t be seeing anyone hang onto the side of a plane as it
takes off from a runway or an all-out brawl break out inside a church. But Guy
Ritchie more than makes up for that with his solid direction. The film moves at
a solidly energetic pace and never drags at any point. Ritchie’s knack for
visual flair also translates into the action sequences. Slick and kinetic,
well-paired with a pulsating score by up-and-coming composer Daniel Pemberton,
and from what I can tell mostly practical with both Cavill and Hammer doing a
lot of their own stunts, these action sequences more than do their job in
regards to thrilling the audience and for the most part make up for some of the
film’s shortcomings as far as the writing is concerned.
Because admittedly, this film is sort of a major case of
style over substance. In this case I’m not saying that this is a bad thing but
it does mean that the film doesn’t have as much depth as something like ‘Kingsman’
or ‘Mission Impossible’. Each of the main characters get only very simple beats
of character development (e.g. Solo’s criminal past, Kuryakin’s family history)
and overall the story is generally straight-forward, not really pulling any
major fast ones on us in terms of twists. But even with that said, the film
definitely benefits from having an excellent ensemble cast. While Solo and
Kuryakin spend most of their time bickering with each other, Henry Cavill and
Armie Hammer have excellent camaraderie and the scenes of them going back and
forth with each other are definitely one of the film’s major highlights. Both
of them also prove to be very charming leads, with Cavill in particular
showcasing off charm that would’ve made him a pretty damn good James Bond. Their
leading ladies are even bigger standouts with both Alicia Vikander, in the
midst of a breakout year having already garnered much acclaim for her
performance in this year’s ‘Ex-Machina’, and Elizabeth Debicki, following her breakout
turn as Jordan Baker in Baz Luhrmann’s ‘The Great Gatsby’, evoking classic Bond
girls and femme fatales, respectively, with their performances. The film also
features noteworthy cameos by Jared Harris as Solo’s CIA handler and Hugh Grant
as Waverly who, minor spoilers for those who haven’t seen the show, becomes the
head of U.N.C.L.E.
Unfortunately, it looks like this film is going to become
one of the summer’s under-performers at the box-office, having only grossed $13
million during its opening weekend. It may not have been made on the type of
budget that we see for superhero films nowadays, but that’s still not a solid
number for a film that was made on a budget of around $75 million. And that’s
sad because this film is pretty damn entertaining and is a prime example of
pure film escapism. Sure it may also be a major example of a film that is style
over substance but Ritchie’s style is so good that I can ignore that for the
most part. The film is a fun thrill-ride from beginning to end thanks to its
exciting action sequences and its solid cast, headlined by the charming trio of
Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, and Alicia Vikander. Like ‘Mission: Impossible’, I’ll
admit that I went into this without having seen any episodes of the TV show
that it is based on but having now seen it, I’m now encouraged to check out the
show in the future. Obviously because of this, I can’t really say anything
about how much this film stays true to its source material, and for the record
this is basically a prequel to the TV series, but I will say that I had a lot
of fun watching this film and if you’re looking for a nice simple spy
action-adventure flick, then I think you’ll like this film as well.
Rating: 3.5/5
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