The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is a 2015 production from RatPac-Dune Entertainment and Davis Entertainment, directed by Guy Ritchie, who co-wrote the script with Lionel Wigram. The movie stars Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki, Sylvester Groth and Hugh Grant in its main roles. The movie scores a 7.3/10 on IMDb but received a low Metascore of 56.
The Story
The story sees an American CIA agent team up with a Russian KGB agent as they together try to stop a criminal organisation from creating and using a nuclear bomb during the postwar times. In my opinion, this is quite a fun story. It makes two opposites, the Americans and the Russians, work together towards a common goal, which creates space from some great banter between the two. At the point you think they finally manage to work together properly and complete their goal, you get thrown off the rails by sudden, and for me rather unexpected, turn of sides from Gaby.
Overall, the story might be ok but nothing too spectacular or particularly great. But for me, this one a very fun movie to watch and the story was at least good to follow and in no way a burden to the movie. Of course, here and there were moments where I thought to myself, what’s happening and how are they succeeding at this, but those moments are just part of a fictional spy story. And apart from the regular spy stuff we even got an aircraft carrier in this movie!
The Characters
The movie has 3 main (protagonist) characters: Solo, Illya and Gaby
Solo Napoleon
Solo is the James Bond of sorts from The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. He, somehow, gets everything done without sustaining any heavy damage. His coolness, combined with his banter towards Illya provides a very fun to watch character, especially because of Henry Cavill’s performance as the character.
Illya Kuryakin
He is just as skilled, if not more skilled than Solo but he lacks the personality which makes Solo so great. Suffering from psychiatric episodes and a rather small view of the world, he gets done. Just not as efficient. I was a bit disappointed by the fact that his episodes never caused any trouble, other than throwing some tables around the room. Combined with the bit strange romance between him and Gaby, this is one of the lesser characters in the movie.
Gaby Teller
The moment we got shown that she worked with the British government all along, I was shocked. Ritchie did a great job of hiding her true identity and the reveal created a great moment for the movie as well as for the story. Besides that, her character was that special though. She mostly just tagged along with the specials agents and helped them out from time to time.
The Production
This is where I feel this movie shines the most. Guy Ritchie used some amazing camera shots and transitions to capture some exhilarating landscapes around his action scenes. Alongside his trademark and unique use of split-screen, it created a movie that different from most movies. And that’s is a good thing in this case! Alongside the amazing camera and editing work, the music in this film is also really great, complementing each scene perfectly.