The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Movie Review

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

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Written by: Guy Ritchie & Lionel Wigram (screenplay) Jeff Kleeman & David C. Wilson and Guy Ritchie & Lionel Wigram (story), Sam Rolfe (television series)
Directed by: Guy Ritchie
Starring: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Hugh Grant, Jared Harris
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
In this remake of the '60s television series, Napolean Solo is a thief turned CIA agent tasked with saving the world.

Verdict
It has a lot of style and flash, but lacks story. It's a fun spy movie  featuring an engagin deadpan style comedy between Cavill and Hammer. I enjoyed it, but it doesn't quite stand out in the spy movie genre.
It depends.

Review
This is style over substance. Cavill and the movie are almost a parody of James Bond, fully aware of how over the top the spy genre can be.
Hammer and Cavill are two spies with completely opposite styles and approaches that turn from enemies to allies when Russia and the U.S. partner to stop a nuclear apocalypse.

The dynamic could almost work if the writers didn't try to trap Hammer as the silent Russian. You can feel that they had a lot of fun writing the part of Napolean Solo, but they didn't quite know what to do with Illya Kuryakin. The characters could have been better balanced, but their dynamic would still make me consider watching the sequel. And the ending definitely sets this up as a franchise.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - Fun but forgettable.

It's up to the actors and the big action set pieces to hold this movie together due to the lack of story. The double crosses are pulled completely out of left field, and the hand holding of showing the same scene a second time now that we know the person's true alliances isn't effective. This happens a couple of times and I wonder if the scenes were repeated just to make the plot feel bigger than it really is.

I can't help but compare this to Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014). Their styles are very different, but they are both recent spy movie spoofs. U.N.C.L.E. feels like it's from the classic Bond era while taking a jab at spy movies, but it doesn't have the stand out fight scenes or over the top action of Kingsman. Kingsman takes the ridiculous premise of many spy movies one step further.

The writing does stand out on occasion, especially when the two spies are trying to one up each other or don't notice a big event occurring in the background and their trivial conversation is at odds with an imminent explosion.