"You're not too good at this subtlety thing, are you?"
-Napoleon Solo
Have you ever noticed that this year has been packed with spy movies? This summer alone we've had Spy, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation , and now The Man From U.C.L.E. with Bond coming out later this year. I'm not sure why Spy movies are so popular. I found Spy to be more enjoyable than I thought, While Rogue Nation was good, but I just didn't enjoy it. This however, I think is safe to say my favorite spy movie ever. The Man from Uncle is just what you want to watch in the waning weeks of summer, and sadly I'm afraid not many people will go out to see it.
When it comes to marketing and targeting a lot of people, I think that Straight Out of Compton will beat out Man from Uncle this week. But putting my dreary side away, I loved The Man from Uncle from beginning to end. This is the most fun I've had in the theater this year!
Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer were fantastic. I don't think you'd ever find a movie again where Cavill and Hammer are bickering out fashion. Their chemistry was top notch and I really liked how they played off each other. Cavill was the suave thief who was brought to the position where he is, while Hammer had a troubled past and had to work harder than everyone else while dealing with some inner trouble to get to where he is. What is awesome is that immediately as you look at them you can tell what their personalities are; Cavill was always wearing a suit, being a gentleman, while Hammer always seemed like he didn't have a fashion sense and kind of came off as a brute. On a character standpoint I'd say Hammer got more insight, but the story was primarily about those two working together, and while they did that right, It's very hilarious watching these two spies trying to out do each other.
When it comes to Guy Ritchie, I'm not the biggest fan. I find that his work is more style over substance, and The Man from Uncle feels like the best of both worlds. It was filmed in a very fascinating way, you can definitely tell that Guy Ritchie directed it, but at the same time the story was there and it was engaging. It didn't need to over complicate things, like a lot of spy movies these days, and it just focused on telling a good story and making you laugh a lot.
The comedy was stellar. You get a lot of great humor coming from everybody. There is this scene where the commander guy is giving Cavill and Hammer their mission briefing, outside with everybody mind you, and it was here I started to wonder why everybody talked about their mission outside of their base. I mean, surely talking about it in their own base would be much more secure than talking about it in the open for anyone to hear, and just as I thought that the commander says he'll give Cavill and Hammer a moment to themselves to get acquainted and every single person in the frame; bystanders, people sitting in chairs, everyone, gets up and leaves with only Cavill and Hammer left. The jokes are smart, it's aware that it's in a very cliched genre, and uses some of those cliques, but unlike other spy films, this one was able to say "here it is" and move on instead of the usually let's drone on about that double cross, or triple cross, or how many crosses there are in spy movies trying to make the audience confused. It always knows when enough is enough, and what to focus on.
As you can tell I loved this film, I think if you're out going to the movies and this is still playing go give it a chance. The performances are great, the cinematography really made you feel like you were in that era, and it's an all around great movie. I know I'll be seeing this again, because The Man from Uncle is just so much fun. It's a solid story, with plenty of smart humor that I do think it would be a waste if you didn't get to enjoy it with hundreds of strangers in the theater.
No comments:
Post a Comment