ACTION; 1hr 56min
STARRING: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki
Model spies: from left, Vikander, Hammer and Cavill
In the hands of Guy Ritchie, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. origin story keeps its feet in the 1960s, when the TV series had its run, but with a sleek upstyle. Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes) directs with an eye for period and pizzazz, revving up with a car chase in East Berlin, then cutting to the real chase in Rome. The CIA’s resident rogue, Napoleon Solo (Cavill), and lethal KGB operative Ilya Kuryakin (Hammer) have been forced by their superiors into an ill-fitting undercover alliance against heavy-hitting handlers of nuclear weaponry (Debicki preens with the shellacked glamour of a chandelier as mastermind Victoria Vinciguerra). Rounding out the touchy partnership by posing, begrudgingly, as Ilya’s fiancée, is German mechanic and feline eyeful Gaby Teller (Vikander), whose scientist father has fallen into Victoria’s manicured claws.
It’s all too chic to be true: the Eternal City backdrop, movie stars in their purebred glory and enough off-the-cuff cool from Cavill and Hammer to ice a Black Label scotch. And on top of all that, there’s a planet to be rescued. As if looking this good weren’t hard enough…
