Perceptive review: "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." film

[Benzadmiral]

As some of you know, I'm a major fan of the '60s TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., which had a very well done reboot/origin film released in 2015. Here is a perceptive and appreciative analysis of the movie's strengths: http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/you-should-be-watching-the-man-from-uncle-2015

When I consider how badly the movie could have misfired, turning the entire concept into a comedy like the 21 Jump Street and Starsky and Hutch films, or simply a limp remake like Get Smart, I realize we dodged not a bullet but a howitzer shell. Guy Ritchie treated the material as well or better than he did the Sherlock Holmes canon in the Robert Downey Jr. films.

 

[Kira]

I'd happily give that movie a watch. Thanks for the info and link.

When I was a kid, during the TV show's original run, small tailor shops on the East Side would put signs on their doors stating that they were not U.N.C.L.E.'s front.

FYI: "East Side" is the formal name of the neighborhood in Manhattan where things like U.N.C.L.E. headquarters and The United Nations are located.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: Kira
I'd happily give that movie a watch. Thanks for the info and link.

When I was a kid, during the TV show's original run, small tailor shops on the East Side would put signs on their doors stating that they were not U.N.C.L.E.'s front.

FYI: "East Side" is the formal name of the neighborhood in Manhattan where things like U.N.C.L.E. headquarters and The United Nations are located.

Ha! Another example of how the show got into people's brains back then. I recall an article in TV Guide in '66 or '67 referring to the show as "The Mystic Cult of Millions": It was the first media fandom, preceding and smoothing the way for the fandom of Star Trek. In its time MfU was the most famous TV show in the world.

The 2015 film clicks whether you were a fan then or since, or not at all. If the screenwriters had called the main characters "Robert Devlin" and "Sergei P. Chekhov," for example, the story would still work.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

This film didn't get the attention it deserves. It may have been a little too slow and stylish for people numbed by Michael Bay movies but it was all the better for it.

 

[CT8]

Last Year I was able to watch about half of The Man From UNCLE episodes on a Putlocker web site. Lots of fun. I really do not care for Holly wood movies as if you have seen one you have seen them all.

 

[Smokescreen]

Alicia Vikander is a good actress in that film.

 

[NateDN10]

I'm much too young to have been into the original TV show, but I thought the 2015 movie was fantastic. One of my favorite movies of the last few years.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
Alicia Vikander is a good actress in that film.

I would never have pictured her as Lara Croft, not based on her screen presence in U.N.C.L.E.; Angelina Jolie owns that role, I think. But Alicia may surprise us.

 

[i_hate_autofraud]

Yeah, I remember the series, missed the movie, I'll have to take a looksee!

Dad at the time was not impressed with the series dressing up a P-38 pistol with
goofy doodads, made it ugly, but the public with no exposure to the real thing
would not have known!