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

by The Scholar Reviews

This review is going to be different and short. Just a heads up.

The Movie Poster

An American, a Russian, and a German walk into a party, and proceed to be the worst spies known to mankind. This is basically the plot of The Man from U.N.C.L.E, a summer movie that unfortunately, didn’t get the appreciation it deserved. I love this movie with a fiery passion, and it has quickly become one of my all time favourite films. This review is going to be a little different, covering more about the movie itself then where to find it, because as of yet it hasn’t been released. So flip a table and get on your moped, and let’s get started.

This movie is an adaptation of the tv show of the same name, and as someone who has only seen one episode of the original source material, I can’t really vouch for its faithfulness to the original. What I can vouch for however is that you don’t have to have seen the show to get what’s going on in the movie, as the movie functions as a “pre-sequel”. Directed by Guy Ritchie, director of the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies (some of my other all time favourite movies) and his style is pretty fantastic. The tone of the movie flips flawlessly from light-hearted comedy, to intense action, to gut-wrenching emotion and back again. The pacing of the movie is also great, I never found it to be slow or boring. Never a dull moment in this movie, that can be assured.

The plot of Man from U.N.C.L.E is rather common in spy flicks, but again they pull it off so well one wouldn’t know the difference. This particular movie uses the “Spies who hate each other are forced together to defeat a common enemy, and eventually form a grudging respect for each other” plot. It can tend to stick to this plot to a T, but it does it in a fresh funny way. That’s all I can say really without entering spoiler territory, so let's move on.

There are three main characters in this movie, Napoleon Solo, Illya Kuryakin, and Gaby Teller. To keep it short I’m going to sum them up in just a few sentences. Napoleon (or Cowboy as Illya calls him) is the stereotypical spy guy. He’s a smart mouth, and it drives his partners crazy. Illya (or Peril as Napoleon calls him) is a Russian with anger issues. Don’t touch his watch if you value your life.  Gaby is the sensible one, and the only one who can get her job done.

I have one thing to tell you about my personal views. Watch it. Just watch it. I don’t care if you don’t like spy movies, watch it. It’s so good and so well done, I’m sad not many people saw it in theatres. So really, go watch it when it comes out.