The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

When I've heard about a remake for "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." I've been very skeptical. I considered it just a trend movie in the endless row of genre flicks released this year: "Kingsman", "Spy", "Mission Impossible" and even the next Bond. Something along the lines "spy movies summer; it will sell". Besides that, loooooong long ago I've watched a couple episodes of the original series starring Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, and finding out that the leads for the Solo/Kuryakin couple are Superman and The Lone Ranger (= Henry Cavill + Armie Hammer) I said niet, it's a no go ... Oh, was I wrong or what? ...

The story ... well, a spy story in the '60s - something "classic" - a neo-nazi secret organization with a nuclear bomb and world domination on the agenda. Details are not important. They'll be when you'll watch the movie, not now. The way this thing is presented is important, or how to serve a bottle of aged Bond, aged in an oak barrel and just taken out of the wine cellar. Like I said, it's been ages since I've seen some of the original series. I vaguely remember the comic nuance that was present there. The new American-Russian spy couple keeps that but it still seems quite different. The character differences between the two are much more emphasized, e.g., the American charm vs. the Russian rigor. And it works. It works very well, and the two leads do their job perfectly.

The movie itself: what we have here is a jewel. It's without question the best I've seen this year as a cinematographic composition meaning the mix between the camera work, soundtrack and editing (yes, better than Mad Max). I can say that I'm impressed to notice that there are still cases of mainstream cinema, of 100% entertainment when you can catch a frame shot in style. Yeah, I know .. It's a clear reference to the '60s cinematography meant to impress through that, reversed perspectives, zoom out, editing with visual splits on the same frame with parallel action, etc. Doesn't matter ... The point is that the result looks very good. The sound - think on Tarantino movies. Enough said.

So, the answer for the start question is yes ... I was wrong. I forgot that the movie is directed by Guy Ritchie. Or, to be specific, I didn't notice that from all the movies he did there wasn't any that on my scale wasn't at least medium above average (even "Swept Away" got on the floating level - no pun intended - was ok for me). Probably the biggest plus in this whole production is given by the directing + script, and it's simply that at no time this wants to be another Bond, but just a fun movie, no constraints attached :) ...

Rating: 5 out of 5