Argylle - La super spia

Matthew Vaughn is one of my favorite directors. He has three movies that are on my all-time favorites list: Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, and Kingsman: The Secret Service. I love his style and consider him a master filmmaker.

His last movie, The King's Man, was terrible. I gave it 2 stars. But no one is perfect and it's easy to forgive one misfire. But with Argylle, we have another severely disappointing entry. It's not nearly as bad as The King's Man, but that might be why it's even more disappointing. It could have been great.

Why doesn't Argylle work? Movies are so complex, it's difficult to answer that question. Here are my guesses. First, the humor and attempts to be quirky feel off. I only laughed once. Second, there are a few cool action scenes, but nothing to write home about.

Third, what idiot decided this should be PG-13? There are so many deaths, but they can't fully show it. So it feels neutered. They do this to sell more tickets, catering to the casuals. But my theater was nearly empty on opening night. So casuals didn't show up and you alienate your true fans. Fourth, for what amounts to a popcorn flick, I was fairly bored and unengaged.

But I think one thing hurt the movie more than anything else. This is a great cast except for one role. The most important one. The main character. I don't dislike Bryce Dallas Howard. But this was a horrendous casting choice. I can list out 30 actresses that would have been better suited for the role. It doesn't seem too bad early on, but the further we get into the story, the worse it gets. It's not even a tiny bit believable.

I still look forward to future Matthew Vaughn projects. But I just found out that his next movie is a sequel to The King's Man. Why????? I can only hope he reevaluates and tries to get back on track.

(1 viewing, opening Thursday UltraScreen 2/1/2024)

Argylle is a disappointingly generic offering from Matthew Vaughn which does nothing to raise him out of the current slump he's in. Because up until now he's always been a master at taking familiar plot structures and using them to make a subversive take on tried and tested story tropes. He did this for superheroes in Kick Ass and for the spy genre in the first Kingsman movie. Argylle on the other hand barely has a single original idea in its entire runtime so it just doesn't feel like it's doing anything of substance with this fairly familiar story. It's not only totally uninspired as a viewing experience but also a pretty boring one at that.

I don't know what happened to the Matthew Vaughn of old who used to be so good at telling concise, focused stories because this yet another film of his that felt massively overindulgent. Though that may be to light a word to describe just how poorly paced this movie is because almost every single scene in this thing overstays it's welcome. No matter how many great action scenes and funny moments there were, when you drag these moments on for too long they lose almost all of their effectiveness. The totally bog standard story doesn't do anything to justify the runtime it's given and Matthew Vaughan's serious lack of restraint in editing robs the entire film of any pace or urgency.

I wouldn't really say I was that impressed in the writing or visual departments. It's a pretty bland looking movie overall with some impressive action but a massive overuse of CGI that frequently took me out of the film. There are many reasons my the 3rd act basically collapsed in on itself for me but the horrendous effects were a large part of it. It feels like ever since the first Kingsman, Vaughn has been trying to top the, now iconic, church fight scene to no avail. The last act dials of the insanity up to ridiculous levels and in no good way. Vaughn just throws a series of ludicrous, over-the-top action sequences in our face back-to-back and not only do they fall totally flat, they actually made me cringe.

But like any film other film, Argylle lives and dies by it's script and quite frankly it's terrible. There's barely a single original idea in this entire film and the whole spy-story-within-a-spy-story gimmick was interesting to begin with but it wore out it's welcome pretty quickly for me. The whole plot revolves around a standard McGuffin chase, a shadowy rogue spy organisation and hints of an amnesia plot. We've seen all this 100 times before and it's not used in a way that feels cheekily referential but just frustratingly lazy. I had very little investment in the Cavill sequences since they're established as fictional from almost the very start but I also didn't find Cavill's performance or the character to be that interesting. He's written as such a charisma vacuum and that's not something I'd ever associate Cavill with. It felt like they just kept forcing the Argylle character into the narrative to capitalise on Cavill's star power rather than because the character warranted repeated inclusion. I liked Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell as a pair and they did have good chemistry but some of the twists and turns related to their characters I found to be quite ridiculous honestly and it felt like Vaughn was pulling twists out of thin air rather than truly earning them.

I was truly hoping that Argylle would be the return to form for Matthew Vaughn that I've been waiting for but honestly this might just be the worst film he's ever made for me. I liked Golden Circle more than most but it was still a massive step down from the first, The King's Man on the other hand was a totally bland slog that never really justified it's own existence. But neither of those two films matched the level of wasted potential that Argylle exhibited for me. It just feels like Vaughn has totally lost sight of what made him and his films stand out in the first place and this feels like a bare template of a story without anything that makes it feel remotely original or subversive. I know it's only February but 2024 has already presented one of its biggest cinematic disappointments for me.

It's disappointing when a film has an intriguing premise but fails to deliver the goods in the end. Such is the case with director Matthew Vaughn's latest, an action-adventure/comedy about an author of spy novels (Bryce Dallas Howard) who stumbles into a real-life espionage scenario that matches the plot of her latest novel, embroiling her in a web of ever-shifting intrigue with various nefarious parties. The problem here is that the film never quite latches onto a dedicated focus to make the picture work. Some of the comic bits are indeed quite funny, but they frequently get bogged down by a meandering story line that's trying to follow a more conventional, twist-laden thriller format. It leaves viewers asking, "So what's it going to be?" There's also more than a little derivative material thrown in, such as story threads we've already seen before in movies like "Romancing the Stone" (1984), "The Long Kiss Goodnight" (1996) and any number of James Bond flicks. While it's true that this release is intended to be a spoof of these titles (especially in scenes featuring Henry Cavill as a hilariously hammy 007 knock-off), there's a big difference between paying tribute and playing unrepentant copycat. Then there's the picture's excessive length, coming in at a bloated 2:19:00 runtime, far longer than it needs to be, a failing attributable to an often-needlessly complicated plot, one that begins to try audience patience at times, especially in the back half. "Argylle" also features a cute, cuddly cat, Alfie, as a central character (at least in its trailer), but, like the narrative overall, the film doesn't quite seem to know what to do with the supposedly frisky, fickle feline, an impression far different from what's conveyed in the picture's video marketing. All of this is a shame, because this title has both potential and some apparent strengths going for it, such as a fine soundtrack, superbly choreographed action sequences, and an excellent ensemble cast with the likes of Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O'Hara, Ariana DeBose, and a seriously underused Richard E. Grant, not to mention fine turns from Howard and Cavill as alter-egos of one another. This one isn't nearly as bad as many critics have made it out to be, but it could have been substantially better with some significant retooling and judicious editing. "Argylle" apparently has ambitions to become a new franchise, too, but we'll have to see if that materializes based on what kind of box office draw it ultimately produces. At this point, though, I think it has its work cut out for it.

There are some movies to which you give 6 or 5 points. But you enjoy the film and find it entertaining. This is one of those films. The movie is extremely entertaining. I had a great time at the cinema. Yes, the effects in the film are terrible; yes, it is a parody; and yes, it is ridiculous. However, it was also absurdly funny and silly. I enjoyed it very much. As a movie, I believe it is average, but not bad. Of course, there are numerous clichés in the film. Many things could have been predicted. By the way, the film is a total twist show. Twists occur one after another, just like in spy films. I lost the seriousness of the movie in the first half hour of the movie. I started enjoying it. The acting isn't perfect, but I think it's spot-on for this movie. I have never seen Bryce Dallas Howard in this kind of role before. It suits her. They also made a great duo with Sam Rockwell. The action scenes in the movie are like those in the "Kingsman" movies, and the director is Matthew Vaughn, who directed those movies too. I didn't fully understand the mid-credit scene of the movie, but if the second movie comes out, I will definitely go. I have no objection to this movie being a series. One of the reasons I like the movie so much is the cat. Alfie, the cat, has many roles in the movie. I don't know which scenes were real and which scenes were CGI (a few were definitely CGI), but it was very funny and entertaining.

No, this is not a masterpiece, but if you just wanna have fun and enjoy a movie where you don't have to feel like you're in film study and need to analyze every single scene, then you will have a good time with this movie. I truly do not understand why there are people out there that will only like a movie if it's the greatest movie ever made where every scene is a creation of pure brilliance that must be discussed for decades to come. I guess some people either can't enjoy something unless it's flawless or they're just unhappy and refuse to have fun. If you don't like the movie because it's just not for you, then all the power to you, I have no criticism for your criticism of the movie; we're all different and allowed to have our own opinions and preferences. It's the reviews I see where people are just stating vague things that they say make the movie bad and it honestly makes me feel happy because it reminds me that I'm the type of person who looks for the good, not the bad, and that I can find joy in many things. I hope you enjoy this movie or enjoyed it if you're reading this post watch. If you didn't, but your reasons are honest and true to yourself, then that's ok too. Love yourself. Love others. Bye.