The Spy Who Forgot They Loved Me

Argylle is further proof that Mathew Vaughn is a director of style. You can always rely on his films to have some visual flair and stylish action sequences. How good the films actually are can vary wildly and Argylle is pretty much slap bang in the middle of his filmography quality wise.

Bryce Dallas Howard plays Elly Conway, a writer of spy fiction who is so good at predicting espionage antics that her books have actually described the real antics of a shady renegade group of agents who know want to abduct her to gain the inside track on a missing computer drive that could expose them. Trying to keep her out of their clutches, and recover the drive himself, is good guy spy Sam Rockwell.

The movie is actually a fairly different from the one many people may have expected based on the trailers. Henry Cavill is in the film as square haired super spy Argyll (along with his even more musclebound sideman John Cena), but only as part of Elly's thoughts. This mainly boils down to an opening sequence and a few action scenes that cut between Rockwell doing whatever he can to off the bad guys and Cavill effortlessly dispatching them in Elly's imagination, a total of 10-15 minutes screen time. What we actually get is something of an action rom-com focused on Dallas Howard and Rockwell. While this may annoy those who came to see the former Superman its a nice change of tone for Vaughn compared to a Kick Ass or Kingsman film. The smooth action remains but out go the anal sex jokes and blood in favour of a pretty sweet storyline of saving the day together.

Said storyline is, on the one hand, a basic globetrotting (or standing in front of a green screen) Mcguffin chase but the twists come thick and fast. Barely fifteen minutes ever goes by without a reveal of some kind and while they vary in effectiveness and logic the frenetic pace means the film never feels like it is coasting. Still, come the final credits you may be left wondering exactly what was going on, especially after a bizarre final revelation and mid credits scene that either reframe the movie or are completely meaningless.

Carrying the film through even the least convincing stretches are the stellar cast. Bryce Dallas Howard has screen prescience and likability for days and gets to show off some range. Sam Rockwell is such a natural in a role like this you wonder why nobody has been able to tempt him to do more of these kind of movies. Together they have great chemistry and their unfolding relationship carries the film. They are ably assisted by a supporting cast including the like of Catherine O'Hara, Bryan Cranston and Samuel L. Jackson.

To say everything about Argylle completely works would be an overstatement and it doesn't come together as well as Vaughn's best, but if you're in the mood for a fun, twisty slice of action anchored by two charismatic leads then you could do a lot worse.

7 grumpy faced cats out of 10.

Comments

Space (and Body) Invaders

With Alien: Romulus , Fede Alvarez becomes the latest director to try and recreate the magic of Alien and/or Aliens. Unsurprisingly he doesn't get close to those two masterpieces but he does serve an atmospheric slice of sci fi horror that may well scratch an itch for those unimpressed with the heavy handed musings of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Set in the time period between Alien and Aliens, the story of Romulus is a back to basics haunted house but in space tale about a group of young miners attempting to escape corporate servitude by breaking into a derelict space station and liberating enough fuel to keep them in stasis while they reach another developed planet. Turns out the station is more decimated then decommissioned and they soon find themselves on the bottom of the local food chain. The break in may be a group effort but it's clear from the off that the main focus of the story is Cailee Spaeny's Rain and her "brother" Andy, a salvaged synthetic hu

Stone the Crows

One thing you can say about The Crow is that is that it has delivered on expectations. They are remaking that crap 90's action film The Crow? Sounds like a bad idea. It's been in development hell for over a decade? It's definitely going to be bad. The Snow White and the Huntsman guy is directing it? His films are quite bad. The trailers out? It looks bad. Film is here? Yeh it's bad. To call the film a remake is a actually a little unfair, it's really a new adaptation of the graphic novel source material (which sucks to begin with) and directer Rupert Sanders has tried to make the film something more than its 1994 counterpart, he just fails at a very fundamental level. This is still the story of Eric, brought back from the dead to kill those who offed him and his girl but this time we lean more into the romance side of the tale, with his rampage motivated by the idea of saving his loves soul rather than just seeking vengeance. The problem is that there is a compl

It's Always Showtime

1988's Beetlejuice is unique blend of visual style, humour, lite horror, performance and trappings of the decade. How to recreate this is a question sequel Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice doesn't even try to answer. Instead it throws its weird and wonderful characters into as many chaotic scenarios as Tim Burton and team can think of and do so at such a manic pace that the viewer doesn't have time to think if they are enjoying it as much. Thanks to the amount of talent on display, this method ends up working a treat. The story begins with Winona Ryder's Lydia Deetz, now the star of a TV show where she contacts the dead, receiving the news that her father has died. Consequently, she reunites with step mother Delia (Catherine O'Hara) for a memorial service come art project back at the old family home. Accompanying the returning cast members are Lydia's daughter Jenna Ortega and new partner Justin Theroux. Ghostly couple Gina Davis and Alec Baldwin are no longer in res

No Love Island

Blink Twice was originally going to be called Pussy Island, meaning it joins the likes of American Fiction (Fuck) and A Family Affair (Mother Fucker) in adopting a disappointing title downgrade. Fortunately, that's pretty much the only disappointing thing about this stellar directing debut from Zoe Kravitz. Naomi Ackie plays nail technician Frida who, along with her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) is whisked away to billionaire Channing Tatum's private island after meeting him at A function they are working. The partying is more reserved than she was expecting and she is convinced she is having a great time but as the reality of accompanying a bunch of strangers to the middle of nowhere and giving up your means of contacting the outside world starts to creep in, Frida can't shake the feeling things might not be as idyllic as they seem. The film this will be most compared to is Get Out and while it doesn't quite hit those heights it brings the same kind of exuberant ener

Level Down

Borderlands is a strange game to make a film adaptation of. Being a "looter-shooter" it is light on narrative and character with the joy of the game coming from unleashing ludicrous weapons upon hordes of enemies. In order to succeed the movie really needed to nail the wacky tone and look of the game's world while adding in sufficient story and character to make the audience care about what is going on. You could generously say director Eli Roth succeeds at half of one of these goals. It may be harsh to pin the films shortcomings on Roth as it is unclear how much of this is the movie he signed up to make. Announced in 2015 and in active development since 2020 the script underwent multiple re writes and had Tim Miller come in for weeks of reshoots after Roth departed the project. The horror veteran certainly seems an odd fit for what ended up being a PG13 action comedy. There is defiantly a much better Borderlands movie that could have been made if he'd been allowed

Dan Says its Alright

Search This Blog