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

Director: Guy Ritchie
Writers: Guy Ritchie, Lionel Wigram
Stars: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander
Strengths: Acting, Comedy
Weakness: Story  
Runtime: 116 minutes
Rating: 4/5

Plot: In the early 1960s, CIA agent Napoleon Solo and KGB operative Illya Kuryakin participate in a joint mission against a mysterious criminal organization, which is working to proliferate nuclear weapons.

Review: The first thing to note about this movie is that it's actually based on a popular US TV show from the post-World War II era. Back then, the spy genre seemed especially relevant given the tensions between the USA and the USSR and so, made great fodder for primetime TV. However Guy Ritchie has now updated the story line and infused it with a wry and dry sense of humour along with a generous dose of wittiness, all the while keeping the Cold War backdrop as a present-but-distant sideline.

Cavill is a former rogue-turned-CIA operative who has to work with KGB sleuth Illya to thwart race car driver Alexander (Calvani) and his impossibly beautiful wife Victoria's (Debicki) radioactive ambitions, so to speak.

The movie borrows from the buddy cop genre too, in the sense that you have two very competent but rival individuals who find themselves stuck together to achieve a common objective.

Ritchie lets Cavill and Hammer have their day in the sun, with the film being buoyed by a slick script and hyper-stylish visuals. Hugh Grant - that master of dry Brit wit - as a spy boss is also delightful here. 

Illya, every inch the ruthless Russian tough-guy spy is initially at loggerheads with his political rival but soon develops a healthy respect for Solo. They realize that they can achieve more while working in sync, in an atmosphere devoid of mutual suspicion. 

It's worth clarifying, though, that the nostalgia here isn't for the U.N.C.L.E. TV show so much as a dated style of movie-making and also movie-watching – Ritchie's film wants to remind you, albeit with a little scattering of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' visual spins and snaps, that the pleasures of an old-fashioned spy or wartime movie can still thrill in the superhero age. It succeeds admirably on its own terms – more so than his two Sherlock Holmes films – and while it never really transcends pastiche, its ambitions don't lie in that direction.

Reviewed by Intisab Shahriyar