Monday Movie Mania - The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. came out while the niece was living with us, so for various reasons, we didn't make it to the theater in 2015. I wasn't into the series back in the day, so I wasn't too disappointed. So when it popped up on the HBO/Cinemark free weekend, we decided what the hell.

Once again, I'm not posting my usual SPOILERS warning since this movie came out two years ago.

This is one of those movies that was much better than what many of our friends said. Maybe it was because I'm not a hardcore fan of the series, but I loved it.

Armie Hammer totally redeemed himself from The Lone Ranger. As I said in that review, I didn't blame Hammer for the piss-poor writing, but this flick allowed him to real show his acting chops.

On the other hand, Henry Cavill sounds like Clark Kent through the first half of the movie. I don't know if he jumped into this job right after Man of Steel wrapped, but you can definitely tell what scenes were filmed first. And honestly, that's the only real gripe I have about the movie.

The script expands on Solo and Kuryakin's pasts in order to flesh out their characters and give motivation for how they ended up in the CIA and KGB respectively. Since this is essentially an origin story, the writers focus on the interactions between the two far more than they do the case they are forced to work on jointly. The chemistry between Hammer and Cavill was probably the best thing about the movie.

The movie captures the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, but not as well as it captures the style and fashion of that time period.

Overall, I give The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 8.5 stars out of 10.