Movie Reviews #18…
[Note from Steve: I guess we’re in the summer doldrums, dog days of summer, or whatever you call it. There have been a few weekends where there’s nothing worth seeing on the silver screen. But this review is a little longer than most, so that’s compensation for you.]
Man from U.N.C.L.E. Guy Ritchie, dir. OK, forget that the Soviet Union never cooperated with anyone after World War Two. (I’m reading a bio of Churchill—they didn’t cooperate much during the War either, but, in their defense, Papa Joe and his Bolsheviks were in survival mode.) Forget that getting American, British, and Russian spies to work together was an impossible mission that even Mr. Phelps couldn’t handle. And forget that the acronym is more of a stretch than saltwater taffy. This movie is fun and has the right mix of Cold War tension, irony, and James Bond-like tongue-in-cheek not to have to depend on the nostalgia factor from the TV series. Consider it a prequel to that series. The film’s much better than the recent Mission Impossible film.
Some reviewers didn’t like the acting. I reveled in it, but I understood why those reviewers said that: they were channeling the TV series. Like the restart of the Star Trek franchise or Mission Impossible films, you have to put aside any preconceptions about what the film should be and just sit back and enjoy the fun. The acting was spot on. Like USA’s White Collar, Solo is an ex-thief in this version, turned into a CIA spy via the same conditions—avoiding jail time—and Henry Cavill plays the part with perfect aplomb.
Ilya, played by Arnie Hammer), is a bit of a hothead, compared to the cerebral TV Kuryakin, but I like this Ilya almost as well, and he’s a bit of a romantic in spite of being KGB. And Alicia Vikander adds a bit of flair as Gaby, the daughter of a nuclear scientist who’s been kidnapped to make a bomb (mini-spoiler) but turns out to be more than just an East German chop-shop mechanic (did that term exist in the sixties?). Tom Cruise should take acting lessons from the principals here, by the way. They’re not Cumberbatch but don’t have to be—a totem pole acts better than Cruise.
I might have to see this one again. The credits contain excerpts from the U.N.C.L.E. spies’ files that flashed by so fast I didn’t get a chance to study them much, but a couple of notations there were hilarious. There are probably many others and pop history references during the movie too. I went through East Berlin on the train ride to West Berlin in the early eighties before the Wall came down—that Communistic squalor, including all those crappy, utilitarian East German cars and dystopian landscapes that made Elysium’s LA seem like paradise, looked authentic in this movie. And for those who enjoy traveling around Europe in their theater chair like in the Bond films, the venues here will delight. I’m giving this just an A-, though, because the bomb didn’t look authentic. (Spoiler alert) Moreover, while I might accept that a missile could home in on a radio transmission even back then, why does a British aircraft carrier have missiles?
[Waiting for sci-fi? More than Human: The Mensa Contagion is now available on Amazon, Smashwords, and other online retailers. Kindle Countdown Deals: The Collector will go on sale for $0.99, reduced from $2.99. The sale will run from August 28 through September 1.]
In elibris libertas…
