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

I was really looking forward to this

Guy Ritchie remake of the 1960′s TV series of the same name. I caught this movie in preview back when it was released before I was to depart on a plane to Scotland the next morning. I then went back to it, watching it with others, to see if my first impression was right or wrong.

The Cold War setting, we have an American CIA agent working with a Russian KGB agent on a special inter-agency mission to track down a gang of criminals hell bent on acquiring nuclear weapons. A lot of the intended humour is suppose to be around how different these two agents are and how different they deal with situations. They try to continually one up one another – each failing in their own way.

We have Superman (Henry Cavill) playing the suave American CIA agent, who while doing his best James Bond impression, doesn’t quite feel convincing. Though, he is nothing compared to his counter part the Lone Ranger (Armie Hammer). The Russian accent does not quite work, nor does his look.

The movie actually got a little better on the second run through, allowing me to enjoy the style, feel and colour of the movie. It is beautifully shot and some of the set pieces are entertaining in their own right, but just don’t flow at all well together. There is one particular setup that see’s them trying to escape together using boats, but Superman gets separated and ends up in a truck eating cheese drinking wine while observing the whole chase/guns without any sense of urgency. It is no where near as slick as what it probably looked on paper.

An aging Hugh Grant pops up as the inter-agents main boss and has some of the best lines, but never given enough screen time in an attempt to save this movie.

You see the problem is simple – it never lived up to the hype of the trailer and pedigree of Mr Snatch/Rocknrolla. This movie should have knocked it out of the park and been as witty and as sharp as Richies previous outings. But it comes no where near even the slickness of Sherlock (let us not talk about the second Sherlock which was meh).

It is a tolerable and enjoyable action romp, but failed to live up to its true potential.

#81 in the series