'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.': Movie Review

— -- Starring Henry Cavill and Army Hammer.

Rated PG-13

Three out of five stars

Based on the hit 1960s TV show, Henry Cavill plays super-slick, rule-breaking CIA agent Napoleon Solo. When we first meet him, he works his way into East Germany to extract and, seemingly, protect Gaby (Alicia Vikander), the daughter of Hitler’s favorite rocket scientist whom both Russia and the U.S. want working for them. Solo is well aware he’s being followed by a Russian spy, with whom he’s about to get very familiar: Illya Kuryakin (Army Hammer). Solo convinces Gaby she needs him to protect her from the Russians, who will likely torture her in order to find out where her father is.

What ensues is the best action sequence of the entire film -- which is unfortunate because, by the time it’s over, there’s still about an hour and 40 minutes of the movie remaining.

The next day, Solo and Kuryakin go from trying to kill one another, to being ordered to work together. A nefarious organization run by a woman named Victoria (Elizabeth Debicki) is trying to acquire a nuclear weapon to destroy...somebody. Illya and Napoleon have to infiltrate the organization by going to Rome, where Napoleon will pretend to be a sophisticated art thief to ingratiate himself with Victoria, while Illya pretends to be a Russian architect, engaged to Gaby, in an effort to gain access to her uncle, the only man who may know the whereabouts of her father, the rocket scientist. Got it?

If you were a geopolitical super-power in the early '60s, wouldn’t you want Hitler’s favorite rocket scientist working on your side? It’s an intriguing premise, but unfortunately, "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." relies way too much on style over story. Director and co-writer Guy Richie is so focused on his beautiful cast, scenery, clothes and cars, he completely forgets to let the audience build a relationship with the characters and his unbelievable story. Which is a shame, since one of the most appealing aspects of the film is Cavill and Hammer’s chemistry, and they don’t spend nearly enough onscreen time with each other.

There’s a bit of a plot twist in "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." but it has little impact because by the time it arrives, you just don’t care about the characters. Instead, we have to settle for a few clever lines of dialogue, a lovely aesthetic and moderate entertainment value, while thinking about how last year’s "Kingsman: The Secret Service" did this sort of thing considerably better.