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

Synopsis: In the early Cold War period, CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and KGB operative Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) participate in a joint mission against a rogue criminal organization working to proliferate nuclear weapons.

The original 1960s television series of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was a bit of spy vs spy merry-making so merry prankster Guy Ritchie would seem to be a good choice to helm a new millennium re-boot and by-and-large he is, although he must be losing his hearing as the film's volume control is set to 11 throughout. Admittedly the glory days of Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000) are far behind him and this is no return to form but he does manage to carve something commendable out of the rock-filled morass that is the action genre.

Unlike Christopher McQuarrie in M:I 5 Ritchie has had the wit to realize that we’ve seen every permutation of hair-raising car chase, goon-wasting gun battle and all-consuming explosions that we need to see and that no matter how you cut it, it’s simply more of the same. There are some action set-pieces but wisely Ritchie limits their frequency and when they do occur keeps them relatively low-key and consistently tongue-in-cheek.  What he replaces them with is style.  From the gorgeous sun-drenched Italian location photography to the gorgeous Alicia Vikander in her 60s Pop Art influenced wardrobe, the film is soaking in the stuff.

But style without content as George Miller amply demonstrated with Mad Max 4 doesn’t mean diddly. Here the film isn’t exactly breath-taking (Ritchie also co-wrote the story and script) but it does make a decent stab at holding our interest with well-drawn characters whose relationships develop some traction over the course of proceedings.  The dapper and devilishly handsome-in-a-(young)-Pierce Brosnan-kind-of-way, Henry Cavill breezes his way through all manner of peril, never so much as getting a hair out of place.  Vikander moderates her irresistible beauty with a tom-boyish testiness and plays a central role in bringing the bad guys to heel, and as the baddest of them, young Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki (last seen as Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby) is impressively wicked. Bearing his years with grace, Hugh Grant has a fun turn as an MI5 handler.  Only Armie Hammer as Ilya Kuryakin struggles to reconcile his supposed Eastern Bloc stodginess and tendencies to outbursts of violence with a growing tenderness for Vikander’s Gaby and begrudging respect for Napoleon’s dandified methods. The resulting neither-fish-nor-fowl character is a bit of a hole in the otherwise entertaining tapestry, one that might be repaired in the sequel for which the ending sets us up.  For once a follow-up is not an entirely depressing thought.

Make no mistakes, "King Lear" The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 2105 is not but as a comedy action movie it’s a pretty good one.

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