3.5 stars. Rated PG-13, for action violence, suggestive content and partial nudity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 8.14.15
Having so successfully
re-imagined the sleuthing Sherlock Holmes and his late 19th century London surroundings,
director Guy Ritchie has plunged forward half a century and change, in order to
replicate the Cold War-era intrigue of classic 1960s spy flicks.
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| Having outwitted one set of enemies, Napoleon (Henry Cavill, left) and Illya (Armie Hammer) cautiously check out the scene, in case other adversaries are waiting to ambush them. Since this is an action-oriented spy thriller, you can bet the answer will be yes... |
The engaging result isn’t merely
set in the twisty, double-crossing world of Iron Curtain espionage; it even
looks and feels like a movie made in the 1960s, thanks to the meticulous
efforts of cinematographer John Mathieson, production designer Oliver Scholl,
costume designer Joanna Johnston — you have to love how she dresses Alicia
Vikander — and even composer Daniel Pemberton.
But let’s be clear: This film has
absolutely nothing to do with The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Scripters Ritchie,
Lionel Wigram, Jeff Kleeman and Davis C. Wilson may have borrowed a couple of
iconic character names — Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin — but the whole
elaborate U.N.C.L.E. mythos has been abandoned and/or ignored.
Ritchie’s film feels much more
like a blend of early Sean Connery James Bond adventures and Michael Caine’s
first two Harry Palmer spy thrillers (The Ipcress File and Funeral in
Berlin). Mind you, that’s not a bad thing ... but if Ritchie & Co. wanted
to mimic a 1960s spy film, why not invent their own characters?
Messing about with a beloved TV
franchise seems a risky proposition either way: Longtime fans are guaranteed to
be disappointed — or even irritated — while younger viewers won’t have the
faintest idea who these guys are anyway. So ... what’s the point?
This cranky rant aside, Ritchie
definitely has the formula down: the all-important blend of nimble spycraft,
inventively staged fisticuffs, mildly audacious action sequences and just the
right dollop of bone-dry humor (shaken, not stirred). The resulting
tongue-in-cheek thriller is a bit lethargic at times — editor James Herbert
could (and should) have tightened some of the many talking-heads interludes —
but it’s otherwise a sleek and colorful blast from the cinematic past.
The action takes place in 1963,
and begins as CIA agent Solo (Henry Cavill) is sent into East Berlin to extract
Gaby Teller (Vikander), the long-estranged daughter of Dr. Udo Teller, once
Hitler’s favorite rocket scientist. The hope is that Gaby will lead Napoleon to
her father, whose wartime research into uranium enrichment has become highly
dangerous, in an unstable world where the United States and Soviet Union are
locked in an anxious, high-stakes game of chicken over nuclear arms supremacy.
