Tag Archives: Sherlock Holmes

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

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. review.

written by Souranath Banerjee.

My Ratings: 3.7/5.

Warner Bros. was trying to make this film for over a decade, but due to numerous casting changes and even directors being swapped the project was hold for a long time.

But finally it’s here, the famous 1964 television series called the The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is now made into a feature film by none other than Guy Ritchie (his first on digital medium). 

man-from-uncle-poster6After directing a string of entertaining films like Snatch. (2000), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and recently a couple of Sherlock Holmes films, Guy Ritchie comes up with this period action comedy and tries his best to cover up the film’s lack of story content with his trademark fast-paced cinematic style.

The basic concept though is very interesting – a story based in the 60s when supposedly US (CIA) and Russia (KGB) joined hands to stop some mysterious organization from developing a nuke.

The cold war tension of that era is very well exploited as the two agents (Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer) from the rival countries repeatedly try to outmatch each other even though they are supposed to be working as a team (this being the main source of comedy in the film).

man-from-uncle-poster8Alicia Vikander becomes an accomplice to this deadly spy game and three of them together form a spy team called U.N.C.L.E (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement).

Elizabeth Debicki and Luca Calvani decently plays their parts as the evil masterminds desperate to control the world. And then there is Hugh Grant, a cameo worth mentioning. 

Shot mostly in Italy, thanks to Oliver Scholl‘s production design and Elli Griff‘s set decoration the film managed to recreate the glamourous 60s pretty well. Many actual vintage costumes were used by costume designer Joanna Johnston and the lavish cars (Jaguars and Ferraris) were a real treat to watch!

man-from-uncle-poster7But i feel in such stylized Guy Ritchie films a lot of credit actually goes to the teamwork of the cinematographer (John Mathieson) and the editor (James Herbert) and then of course the pumped up music that maintains the pace of the film (thanks to composer Daniel Pemberton).

Overall after a lot of split-screen editing, car racing and pretty close range bullets firing – action, comedy, love, drama, when you come out of the cinema hall you will feel entertained but won’t be able to tell anything particularly that you liked about the film.

May be you don’t have to. Just go and get entertained!