Pictures shows, Armie Hammer as Illya Kuryakin, in Warner Bros. The two are introduced by an order to kill one another, but are forced into a partnership to essentially save the world. Guys get shot, things explode, but nothing matters almost so much as the cut of Henry Cavill’s suit and his consistently spot-on color coordination.
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Thus, though Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and Ilya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) open the movie with a high-speed chase and a fist-fight to the death, they are ordered to cease the violence and work together at least until the nuclear bomb is taken from evil hands and perhaps destroyed. The characters stick to their cores, though, throughout the film, adapting to one another, in true origin story form.
“The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” could be smarter. Coming at each other from rival sides are Solo (Henry Cavill, still looking pretty Supermanish) and Kuryakin (Armie Hammer, with conventionally cut hair, alas), who’s specifically identified as Ukrainian but is no less fanatically committed to the Motherland. Without even batting an eye I can rattle off titles this year like Kingsmen: The Secret Service, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, and Spy, with the James Bond outing Spectre still to come. Each line, though, is delivered with a 60’s impression and it never gives Cavill a significant chance to change cadence or tone.
The film hits cinemas this Friday so don’t miss out on what looks set to be one of the most stylish films of 2015!
It’s not until the climax of “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”, a colorful, Cold War-era spy thriller, that its main failing becomes clear: The plot doesn’t matter. From the spartan Iron Curtain opening sequence to the Rococo explosion of production design that awaits in the Italian-set latter half, the film is as fetishistically detail-oriented as any Wes Anderson movie, and yet Ritchie engineers the experience to privilege the characters and action over their lavishly appointed environments. He added, “We had to keep me at a certain weight and make sure I didn’t blow up and get fat – which is easy to do when you’re under stress and you want to have a drink at the weekend”. He wanted dry humor, consistent characters, action which can both “wow” and humor audiences, and a story-telling format with wit to match the suave throwback approach, witty humor, and classy action.
Rated: PG-13, for action violence, some suggestive content and partial nudity. (Even the classic Bond boat chase is given a fresh spin.). While there is clearly ambition to adapt his unique style, Ritchie lingers in the past all too often and this hinders the film somewhat.
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The show ran from 1964 to ’68 and revolved around a network of spies who worked for the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, policing the globe from the threat of T.H.R.U.S.H., an organization that doesn’t make it into the film, for obvious, STD-related reasons.
