The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

The cool soundtrack saves an otherwise average spy story set in the days of The Berlin Wall. Pemberton is Morricone’s reincarnation. Ritchie has an incredible feel for music, but the catchy sixties hits were completely overshadowed by excellent instrumental music oscillating between western, spy genre and some weird ethno mix. The acting duo (Cavill, Hammer), trio (Alicia), quartet (Grant) is welcome, I wouldn’t turn down another adventure with them, with a bit more complex story of course. Some isolated scenes are actually genius (the snack in the car), but in general I expected just a little bit more. A fine chill. Noting more, nothing less. Damn. I left my jacket in the other room. (21/08/2015)

A breezy and relaxing retro film with a very likeable cast (Armie Hammer, Henry Cavill, Elizabeth Debicki and Alicia Vikander), which, despite being labeled a comedy, has the kind of humour that makes you laugh internally. The interactions, and banter between the three main characters worked to a tee, as did the action scenes, of which there were plenty. A decently made genre mash-up with some good plot twists that manages to keep you both in suspense and mildly entertained. (02/08/2016)

I rooted for this film long before the private screening, cheered it for the stylish retro opening and was sympathising with Ritchie's visual imagery and breezy detachment even half an hour or so before the final credits rolled. But what up until then was a harmless play with various genre elements, where the diverse nature of the plot was still held together by the stylish form, the measured performances and the crushing pace, unfortunately transformed into a stale pictorial feast, which didn’t lack humour and plot drive, but all those disparate ingredients were now creaking and forming a standard hyper-stylish spy mess that doesn't offend and entertains at first, but in retrospect is dominated by a chaos with only a dim glimmer of genuinely funny lines or novel story motifs. 70% (20/11/2015)

It was basically like a Bond film whose creators shamefully wasted the opportunity for witty dialogue. If they hadn’t, agent Solo wouldn’t have gotten on my nerves so much and agent Kurjakin might not have seemed like a Terminator with poor software. It could have been a great film if only Guy Ritchie hadn’t forgotten to put more zing into it. 4*- (23/07/2019)

I’m really glad that Guy Ritchie was given an espionage farce screenplay to turn into a movie. I said ‘farce’ on purpose because it really does come across like that. The term definitely fits better than the usual term ‘comedy’. At the same time, I’m a bit sad that I didn’t enjoy the movie as much as I’d hoped I would. I was quite unhappy when giving the movie a three-star review after watching it. You see, there are some great scenes in the movie – Guy Ritchie sure is good at those. The fact that Guy Ritchie’s movies are supposed to make a certain impression, but that he is not as good at story-telling is simply true, but on the other hand, he managed to create a great retro atmosphere and a whole number of great action scenes (the final action scene, or the scene at the base near the sea). You simply need to put up with the fact that in terms of the plot, this movie is dead and buried at the bottom of the lake. And Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer don’t really help things either. I really had to work my way towards their characters; nevertheless, I feel that the second time around, it would definitely be a lot better, which is not me saying that I won’t give the flick another chance in the future – I might even change my opinion. If nothing else, the absolutely fabulous Alicia Vikander had so much charisma that it helped heal some of the film’s wounds. So, if nothing else, she definitely was a pleasure to watch – more than anybody else in any other movie for a long time. (27/10/2016)