Codename U.N.C.L.E.

I've never seen the original TV series (I feel obliged to offer some preface in these matters) but damn, there's just something so refreshing about "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.". Not just as a genre movie, which sets itself apart from modern spy fare with a certain restraint towards its action scenes (even the torture is unconventional), but as a '60s throwback. It creates a stylized Cold War setting, and it's one I totally wouldn't mind returning to; I love that Morricone/Schifrin score.

The main cast (Cavill, Hammer and Vikander) shares a great chemistry and just seems to fit. This is another reason there should be a sequel. I mean, really, if there are two Sherlock Holmes movies, we deserve at least one more U.N.C.L.E.

Some of Guy Ritchie's movies I do love, and this is one of them.

8/10

I love this movie so much. The first time I watched it with a friend, we jumped back in the movie so many times to rewatch all our favourite parts over and over again. I've watched it a couple of times, and I still like it so so much. I've always liked spy movies. Growing up watching Bond. This movie is fun and clever and it's just a great movie. I might just go and rewatch it right now actually.

Yes, I know this review is stupid positive. But when you find a movie that you can enjoy without finding any big mistakes or things you get annoyed about, you just have to feel happy.

I never watched the original TV show, but a friend of mine did, and he was really excited about this movie. Even I could tell they really put some effort in this. You get thrown back into an era you might (very likely) not know. But that shouldn't take away the fun you can have with this.

It's a mystery why this underperformed at the box office, but might have to do with the fact, that people could not really tell what this is. The TV show is not as accessible as other (A-Team, Mission Impossible and so forth). If you get a chance and you like spy comedies, you should check this out. Even if it goes a bit overboard towards the end (a twist that doesn't make too much sense), it still pretty fun

When I first saw the previews for Guy Ritche's latest film, "The Man from UNCLE" – a remake of the series of the same name – I decided to approach it fresh. So I avoided watching any of the adventures of Robert Vaughn's Napoleon Solo and David McCallum's Ilya Kuryakin.

I mean, to do otherwise just would not be fair, since my exposure to the original is limited to pop culture references. Why catch up to a show from decades ago only to rip apart the new one? Why give myself false nostalgia?

That said, I cannot tell you whether this is a faithful recreation of the original, a tasteful homage, or perhaps a complete bastardization.

However, I can say that, as a Guy Ritchie action-comedy, it works. The jabs at fictional representations of espionage are delivered with near perfect timing. Even the languishing takes meant to ridicule the tropes, stereotypes and clichés we have all come to see in every action spy thriller do not feel drawn out. All of Ritchie's trademarks are also there, from the diagetic sound that shifts to almost non-diagetic levels as the on screen action becomes a musical montage – a music video if you will – right down to the ubiquitous tongue in cheek, deadpan humour.

While I am sure the more eagle-eyed of viewers could play a game of "spot the anachronism" (that tube frame 4x4 in the previews, for instance), I would actually fault this movie as being too period. They seem to have cherry picked all the things people imagine as from the era. The result is that the clothes are just too chic, the set pieces too on the nose.

Then again, I guess that is the point: You are meant to fall in love with the aesthetics of that period as interpreted by Oliver Scholl's production design, and as captured by John Mathieson's cinematography. The fashion, the accessories... even the cars. Especially the cars! How could any depiction of the glamour of the sixties be complete without one Jaguar E Type? Also, watch out for the cameo of a $38 million Ferrari.

Even with the attention to detail "Mad Men" put into shattering any preconceived notions of the so-called swinging sixties, as well as CNN's "The Sixties" television documentary series' unflinching look at the social turmoil of those times, somehow I still wish I could have lived back then.

Or at least escape into the movie universe they have created.

Because in our world where terrorist groups are committing heinous acts of barbarity that would put any of UNCLE's supervillain enemies to shame, where spy thrillers like "Homeland" had to up the ante because reality is scarier than the fictional world they have created, where the James Bond 007 franchise lost its playfulness long ago and just keeps getting grittier and grittier, and where Donald Trump is the most popular US republican presidential aspirant, the Cold War and its Mutually Assured Destruction definitely seem worth pining for. I mean what is the mere threat of a few megatons of thermonuclear annihilation compared to the Donald?

The movie is cast satisfyingly well enough, with Armie Hammer's Ilya Kuryakin projecting a cold lethality that may have been a bit much. Luckily, this is a bickering buddy movie, where Henry Cavill's Napoleon Solo balances things out with borderline insufferable calm smoothness. For something with a bunch of Brits speaking in American accents, I am a bit surprised they toned down Gaby Teller's accent whenever the character speaks English – I'm sure the Swedish Alicia Vikander could lay an affectation of an East Berliner real thick.

In all, "The Man from UNCLE" is an enjoyable comedy and an escapist fare which just happens to be seemingly set in our past. I even rank it as a solid tale of espionage, with the end reminding me of Roger Moore as Bond, yelling to General Gogol, "That's détente comrade. I don't have it. You don't have it."

This film is set in the early sixties and opens in East Berlin as CIA agent Napoleon Solo attempts to extract a German woman, Gaby Teller. Her father had worked for the Nazi missile programme before being taken to the United States; now he has gone missing and is presumed to be working for a group that will make atomic bombs for anybody who will pay them. A Soviet agent, Ilya Kuryakin, who is clearly highly skilled, tries to stop them but is ultimately unsuccessful. Shortly afterward, in West Berlin, the three of them are reunited and they are told that they will be working together in a joint US/USSR mission. Travelling to Rome, with Ilya posing as Gaby's fiancé and Napoleon posing as a thief they make contact with Gaby's uncle and attempt to find her father and infiltrate the criminal organisation.

As a child I enjoyed watched repeats of the original TV show so was a little unsure about watching this new version. I needn't have worried. As it tells a story of Napoleon and Ilya's first mission together no prior knowledge of the characters is needed. The early scenes to a fine job of introducing the key characters and their mission. The action gets started early and continues throughout; it is exciting without being gory... in fact the style reminded me of early Bond films but with the level of humour turned up. The humour was unforced and didn't get in the way of the story. Everything about the film adds to the sixties feel without it becoming a pastiche. The cast is solid with Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer impressing as Napoleon and Ilya respectively and Alicia Vikander delighting as Gaby. Elizabeth Debicki also does a fine job as antagonist Victoria Vinciguerra. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to fans of lighter '60s spy thrillers; it captures the feel and delivers laughs and excitement... along with a few good twists.