Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I confess upfront that I had no idea a series existed and I watched this wrongly assuming it was based on an "original" screen play. However, i should have guessed that it had roots in the past, since the plot actually made sense and it had some style.On top of everything, Guy Ritchie's directed, which could have made the whole project take a turn for the predictable British-gansta style. Luckily, that did not happen.Cavill and Hammer plays two spies from the opposite side of the Iron curtain, forced to work together. An attractive woman is thrown in for good measure, but rather tastefully (not in the James Bond-disposable style). Vikander is Gaby Teller a German who has some secrets of her own.Elizabeth Debicki, who was quite effective in the mini series "The night manager" appears as an Audrey Hepburn-lookalike and one of the villains of the story.Really enjoyable.

I'm 63, so this was my thing at 7/8 years old. I was an agent. How this takes me back the first word i learned to spell. I was an uncle agent, with my mother empty embassy cigarette packet as my communicator, what fun.....the sixty. Its worth viewing if only for the fashion, eye candy not bad and some good moments just like the original. Love it....xxxxxxx ha ha! I so hope they make a 2 3 4. Total lost my self. BRILLIANT.thank you Sans

The Man From Uncle (TMFU) Remake: What IS it? Ugh. Ptooie. don't bother.It is awful. It is another movie branded as TMFU but is NOT. And its not even that good a stand alone movie even if you knew it's not what you wanted! This thing is NOT a remake of what we enjoyed as teenagers, it displaces the period to the Cold War. Casting is terrible, Solo and Kuryakin are wrong, played stiffly, badly, with no sense of levity. The Man From Uncle's themes were not Cold War themes except vaguely. The original was much more tongue in cheek, satirical, and the bad guys were Thrush, more like Spectre. TMFU was nonpolitical and fun. This just stinks. Thrush stood for The Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity. like the victors say Nazis are said to have been, I guess. The casting on this one could not have been more wrong. The mood, setting, feeling, was all wrong. It was like it was based entirely on another concept and just relabeled as The Man From Uncle.BAD. Neither of the main characters had any of the charm or style the originals had,even on the limited budget that the original MFU had. It depended on strong characterization and a sense of fun. This thing has NONE of that other than being passably OK with period sets and some of its costuming. It copies the original's yellow with blue outlined subtitles in the same fonts and colors, but uses them badly. They were not done well and vanish into the background. Being hard of hearing I notice this. The music is not even derivative or familiar of Jerry Goldsmith's theme. It runs more like an Italian knock off of old spy movies and is nowhere near as fun. I could not bear to finish it and turned it off. My score on the Man From Uncle, remake: -10. A piece of crap. And it wasn't just me-- it was a box office failure and for good reason.

This is a nice, fun movie absolutely worth seeing. It got good reviews from both audience and critics and I think it deserved to do better at the box office than it did. The original U.N.C.L.E. series (1964+) -- which I watched as a kid -- at the time was the sensation of the TV world. We all knew what the initials stood for and what the latest episodes were about. The show was one of several attempts to capitalize on the success of the early Bond films (others including e.g. I Spy, To Catch a Thief) and was quickly spoofed in turn by the absurdist Get Smart (1965) (the lines from which also became watchwords around school). Unfortunately, the TV UNCLE starring Robert Vaughn and David McCallum changed from a semi-serious -- and good -- show in its first couple of seasons into broad self-parody in its later years and just lost steam. To read more about that I recommend Vaughn's interesting autobiography "A Fortunate Life" (sadly Vaughn died just last year).This new movie is a great look back into that era of history. However, unlike the 2008 movie recreation of Get Smart, it doesn't try to copy anything much from the original show except the Cold War ambiance of the 1960's. As the movie begins, U.N.C.L.E. as an agency doesn't even exist. Instead our two favorite agents, Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) are forced by their respective bosses (CIA, KGB) to work together to track down a rogue Nazi weapons scientist and nuclear bomb (or something. The initial layout of the mission is complex, zooms by quickly, and doesn't really matter anyway. It's the process that counts.). The two of them spend most of the film edging around each other, finally though grudgingly arriving at a solid working partnership by the end. Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Debicki figure prominently as their partner Gaby and chief villain Victoria respectively; they get to show off lots of striking 1960's clothing. In the second half, the always-reliable Hugh Grant makes his appearance as an affably overbearing Alexander Waverley, the man behind the curtain who's been pulling all their strings. At the end, it's clear that Napoleon, Illya, and Gaby have been formed into a new team with the new code name UNCLE and already given their next mission. They don't look entirely happy about it.Cavill's version of Napoleon Solo is an even more extreme suave, icy-cool version than Vaughn's, but Hammer's hulking, physical version of Illya Kuryakin is nothing like David McCallum's. There's lots of good action interwoven expertly with ironic humor. At one point, Solo (realizing his drink has been drugged), settles himself down flat on a couch, explaining to Victoria that "the last time, I hit my head". An earlier chase scene with two speedboats and an old truck is delightfully original. And there's a horrible but hilarious setup of black humor when the irredemeedably evil Nazi accidentally burns himself up while Napoleon and Illya are in the next room discussing what to do with him. The plot finishes up with another bit of black humor when Solo keeps Victoria talking on the radio long enough for her escape boat to be tracked down and elegantly sunk (His dry signoff "How's that for entertainment?" has got to be one of the better taglines ever used.) Clever and stylish direction by Guy Ritchie, for a movie where style is quite a bit more important than substance. His occasional use of multiple split-screens is another look back at the '60's and in one case is an extremely effective way to get through a lot of action (the covert invasion of the bad guys' island) very efficiently without taking away screen time from our favorite characters. (That sequence slyly finishes up as the splits showing Napoleon and Illya dissolve when they've arrived at the same place.) If you missed it in the theaters, it's definitely worth catching on Netflix now. Sadly this doesn't look like it will lead to any sequels.