The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (August 2015)

Official Australian release date: 13/8/15. Viewed: 12/8/15.

Director: Guy Ritchie

Actors: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki

Genre: Action / Adventure

Rating: M       

‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ is a 60s spy film, based on a 60s cold-war-era TV show, and it is great! While spy movies might be overdone this year (‘Mission: Impossible’ 5 just came out, ‘Spectre’ is out in three months and ‘Kingsman’ is similar), there’s always room for fun, classy, well-made films – and Ritchie’s eighth film is up there with ‘Snatch’, in my opinion. It’s certainly as good as, if not better, than the two ‘Sherlock Holmes’ films.

UNCLE stands for “United Network Command for Law and Enforcement”, although you don’t see this until the final credits – it’s just another lame acronym, a la SHIELD. The film keeps lots of it’s 60s elements – the cars, clothes, editing/split screens, the cool yellow/bold subtitles when required and the fantastic score/soundtrack. The story is simple – a KGB agent (Hammer) and a CIA agent (Cavill – Superman himself) are forced to work together with a German (Vikander) to find the bad guys who are making their own nuclear weapons. It’s funny that Cavill is British, playing an American; Hammer is American, playing a Russian; and Vikander is Swedish, playing a German.

The film doesn’t mess around, and while it goes for almost two hours, it is very well paced, with never too much downtime – there’s a car chase in the first 5min, boat chases, plenty of fight scenes and always a joke or funny quip not far away, as the American and Russian take turns to emasculate each other. The chemistry between the three leads is great and makes the film – aided by the Italian scenery – as the film draws you in expertly and has a very satisfying ending. I hope there's more!

Overall: Genuinely fun, classic spy romp.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.