The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was quite ahead of its time when the TV show debuted in the height of the Cold War. It showed that when the Soviets and Americans, bitter enemies with an arsenal of nuclear weapons pointed at each other, worked together — they could do great things.
Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes, Snatch) has taken the themes of that iconic hit show and brought it to the silver screen with Henry Cavill (the upcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) portraying Agent Solo, the American CIA agent with style in spades and Armie Hammer (The Social Network, The Lone Ranger) as the Russian KGB agent Illya. The latter is a brute and a pure embodiment of the Soviet Empire, as it was seen in the 1960s.
In the film The Man from U.N.C.L.E., these two are brought together by their bosses to stop a ruthless international crime ring from getting a nuclear bomb that could be used against either of our agents’ countries. They are aided by a mysterious woman named Gaby (Alicia Vikander) who we meet in East Berlin and is perceived to be East German, but where her allegiances lie is a mystery.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. has several things going for it, not the least of which is supreme style and feels ripped from the pages of GQ in the 1960s. It is gloriously shot as Europe, even drab East Germany, feels electric and ripe with the possibilities of post-World War II opportunity. What action sequences we do get are right out of the Ritchie playbook, and that is an action movie manual we adore. Yet, we wish there was more action scenes and that they had been elevated to give the audience more of a feeling of risk and reward.
After the success of this summer’s Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, audiences need to be impressed. Unfortunately, the action sequences in Ritchie’s film won’t compare to what we’ve seen recently, much less films like Skyfall from a few years back. Ritchie is a top notch action director, so perhaps he just felt like doing more style than sizzling substance on his latest.
His leads are certainly good looking enough, but Cavill comes across as a bit flat where the character needed to be enigmatic. He’s not quite mailing it in, but seems to flirt with that sentiment more often than not. Hammer’s Russian accent is actually quite good, but the background and storyline he’s given in the script (co-written by Ritchie and four other writers) is muddled at best. He has psychological issues that leads him to violence? Confusing to say the least.
The other thing about a film like this is that the villain needs to be one who is vilified. Elizabeth Debicki’s Victoria comes off as more of a 60s-era Paris Hilton instead of a leader of an international crime ring. Whether a spy thriller or a superhero movie, it unfortunately, can only be as good as its evil-doer and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. did not have us caring either way what happened to Victoria and her minions.
Ritchie continues to be one of our favorite directors. There are elements of this film that are supremely rich and have his stamp all over it. Yet, this is undoubtedly a misfire for him and we can’t wait to see what he does next with his King Arthur story.
It’s interesting, some years ago Quentin Tarantino was going to bring The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to the big screen, and one cannot help but think that where Ritchie’s take was a bit blah, Tarantino’s would have been electric. But then again, maybe The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is a relic of another time that should be left alone and that’s why Tarantino (wisely) walked away?
Grade: C-