It is the 1960s.
Napoleon Solo is a former thief and current (not especially willing) CIA agent. He's charming, clever and good at improvisation, but kind of a jerk.
Ilya Kuryakin is a KGB agent. He's taciturn and thorough, and very strong. He's also a bit bullish and hard-headed.
Solo and Kuryakin first meet when the latter attempts to thwart Solo's mission to help Gaby Teller, the daughter of an alleged Nazi scientist, escape from East Berlin to the west. Solo wins that round - barely.
Neither man is very impressed when their respective bosses inform them that they will now be working together. Gaby's father, you see, has disappeared and is believed to be working with a secret organisation of former Nazis to develop a nuclear weapon. Only by combining forces can the US and USSR prevent this threat from coming to pass.
Neither man is very impressed when their respective bosses inform them that they will now be working together. Gaby's father, you see, has disappeared and is believed to be working with a secret organisation of former Nazis to develop a nuclear weapon. Only by combining forces can the US and USSR prevent this threat from coming to pass.
And thus the scene is set for 'odd couple' spy antics.
The Man from UNCLE has a great cast, stylish direction, cool 60s fashion, capable villains and neat action sequences. Unfortunately, it is somehow less than the sum of these parts. I think this is due to two factors: tone and structure. In the first case, the film comes across as a bit smug, and rather too impressed with its own cleverness (when it is not, in fact, all that clever - the plot-related surprises, frankly, aren't surprising). In the second case, the final act of the film loses momentum and direction. We're set up to expect an exciting special forces assault, a la You Only Live Twice, but said assault turns out to be straightforward and instead we get a long chase scene (in a movie not exactly short of them), and then a very talky final resolution to the plot.
The Man from UNCLE has a great cast, stylish direction, cool 60s fashion, capable villains and neat action sequences. Unfortunately, it is somehow less than the sum of these parts. I think this is due to two factors: tone and structure. In the first case, the film comes across as a bit smug, and rather too impressed with its own cleverness (when it is not, in fact, all that clever - the plot-related surprises, frankly, aren't surprising). In the second case, the final act of the film loses momentum and direction. We're set up to expect an exciting special forces assault, a la You Only Live Twice, but said assault turns out to be straightforward and instead we get a long chase scene (in a movie not exactly short of them), and then a very talky final resolution to the plot.
The final film is still fairly fun and enjoyable, especially if this kind of thing is in your wheelhouse, but I do feel a little disappointed that what we got fell short of what it could have been, given the components on hand.
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