The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is a 2015 spy film directed by Guy Ritchie and written by Ritchie and Lionel Wigram. It is based on the 1964 MGM television series of the same name, which was created by Norman Felton and Sam Rolfe. The film stars Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki, and Hugh Grant. The film was produced by RatPac-Dune Entertainment and Davis Entertainment while Turner Entertainment Co., the original TV series current holder, was also involved.
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In 1963 CIA-Agent Napoleon Solo extracts Gaby Teller, daughter of nuclear scientist Dr. Udo Teller. Solo and KGB Agent Illya Kuryakin are ordered to team up and stop Alexander and Victoria Vinciguerra, Nazi sympathizers using Teller to build their own private nuclear weapon.
The men travel to Rome with Gaby, whose uncle Rudi works for the Vinciguerras. Muggers take Kuryakin's father's watch, but Kuryakin does not react in order to maintain his cover. Solo and Kuryakin break into a Vinciguerra shipping yard and find traces of uranium. While escaping into the water Kuryakin nearly drowns, but Solo saves him.
The following day, Gaby meets with Rudi and Alexander and betrays Kuryakin and Solo to them. Rudi tortures Solo, but Kuryakin rescues him and tortures Rudi. Rudi reveals the weapon is hidden in an island fortress where Gaby has been reunited with her father. Teller completes the weapon, and Victoria kills him.
Kuryakin confronts Solo in his hotel room, and Solo returns the stolen watch. Kuryakin admits his assignment was to kill Solo and take the disc for his government. Solo replies that he knew this, and had the same orders. They instead burn the contents of the disc, to give neither side the upper hand in the arms race. Reuniting with Gaby and Waverly, the trio have been reassigned to Waverly's international organization. Waverly gives them a new mission under a new codename: U.N.C.L.E.
Producer John Davis optioned the film rights to the 1960s TV series in 1993, setting up a development deal for an adaptation with Warner Bros. and series producer Norman Felton. Davis has estimated that he commissioned 12 or 14 different scripts over the course of 20 years, with writers Jim and John Thomas, John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, and Scott Z. Burns. Quentin Tarantino was briefly attached following the success of Pulp Fiction, but opted to make Jackie Brown instead. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. continued to labor in development hell with directors Matthew Vaughn and David Dobkin.[7] Steven Soderbergh was attached to direct Scott Z. Burns' screenplay, with production slated to begin in March 2012. Executives from Warner Bros. wanted the budget to stay below $60 million, but Soderbergh felt that amount would not be adequate to fund the 1960s-era sets, props, and international settings required for the film.[8] Emily Blunt was nearly cast as the female lead,[9] but she left the project shortly after Soderbergh departed in November 2011.[10]
Guy Ritchie signed on in March 2013.[11] On July 31, 2013, it was announced that Ritchie's adaptation would start filming in September 2013 in London and Italy.[12][13] The final production budget was approximately $75 million US.
Principal photography on the film commenced on September 9, 2013.[30] In October 2013, filming was being under way at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, Royal Victoria Docks, London and Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit in West Sussex, UK.
Two locations stood in place for Berlin sites on either side of the wall: the public toilet fight between Solo and Kuryakin was shot in Regent's Park in London, while the car chase during the movie's first act was shot in Chatham Historic Dockyard, Kent UK.[31][32][33]
Director Guy Ritchie finalized the script throughout production: "He's quite intuitive and tends to constantly rewrite stuff, which he does even when they're shooting. He'll rewrite things in the morning if they're shooting that day, working with the actors if something doesn't feel right." says long-term collaborator David Allcock.[34]
The musical score for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was composed by Daniel Pemberton.[35] A soundtrack album was released by WaterTower Music on August 7, 2015.[36] A behind the scenes video was also released.[37] The musical score received many glowing reviews with the LA Times noting "it is composer Daniel Pemberton who in some ways seems to understand the idea of the movie even better than Ritchie, his score featuring breathy flutes, twangy guitar, spooky harpsichord and pounding drums and organ capturing the mixture of pastiche, homage and a twist of the new in a way the rest of the film rarely matches."[38]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 68% based on 291 reviews, with an average rating of 6.20/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Man from U.N.C.L.E. tries to distract from an unremarkable story with charismatic stars and fizzy set pieces, adding up to an uneven action thriller with just enough style to overcome its lack of substance."[41] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[46] On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[3]
A 3D action game based on the film titled Mission: Berlin was released on iOS and Android. It featured sneaking, shooting, and getting in and out of drivable vehicles in the style of open world games. The player can choose to play as Solo or Kuryakin. There was also a multiplayer death match. As of December 2018, the game has been removed from both marketplaces.[50]
A mounting complaint about Hollywood movies lately is the endless parade of sequels, remakes, and reboots. People attest that Hollywood is out of original ideas when they see a list of planned retreads the size of the 144-title one on the website Den of Geek. This very writer attests right back that inspiration has to come from somewhere and it always comes from previously published or created works, whether we're talking about novels, plays, operas, short stories, comic books, religious scripture, mythology, or other classical works from across the centuries. Honestly, that's par for the course.
However, when something is good enough, remakes aren't necessary. Classics should be left classic. In the wrong hands and with the wrong intentions, something classic gets turned into something its not with modernization. Take something like Michael Bay's "Transformers" franchise skirting 20-30 years of updating to screw with things compared to the 50-year-plus continuous and gradual evolution of James Bond with the shifting modern times. One works and one doesn't. Looks are always going to change, but the goal of any remake should be to keep the tone and essence of what made it classic, whether that's F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Shakespeare, or Spider-Man
With that in mind, we arrive at Guy Ritchie's "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." Based on the 1964-1968 TV series that ran on NBC starring Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, few would call it a seminal classic. More would call it a nice time capsule. Modernization of the old school spy genre from a generation ago has been done before and plenty. The likes of Ethan Hunt in "Mission: Impossible," the "Bourne" trilogy based on Robert Ludlum's works, and Maxwell Smart of "Get Smart" have all gotten their modern makeover while James Bond gets reinvented with each new actor portraying the character.
Some are faithful and some blaze their own trail. Because of the box office clout of Bond and Hunt and plenty of failed imitators in between, "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and its small stature roots already have difficulty standing out as a ripe property for viable franchise possibilities. It would have to hit on its own unique style to succeed and stand out. Ritchie's film does exactly that to be an easy and breezy companion to the foreboding likes of Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt, and James Bond. If you feel the spy game has gotten too ominous over the years, slide over to "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and have a good time.
"Man of Steel" hunk Henry Cavill plays Napoleon Solo, a reformed professional thief now working as a decadent American secret agent in 1963. He is working to extradite a key asset named Gaby Teller, played by "Ex Machina" discovery Alicia Vikander, from East Berlin to the allied side of West Berlin. Solo crosses paths with the relentless and tough KGB operative Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer of "J. Edgar" and "The Lone Ranger"), who puts up quite a fight of opposition before Solo and Gaby get away.
Teller is the daughter of a former Nazi scientist who's being held by a criminally-minded shipping company front controlled by the ruthless tycoon Victoria Vinciguerra (Elizabeth Debicki of "The Great Gatsby"). Her plans are you use Gaby's father to build a personal nuclear weapon. That imposing development resonates for both Napoleon and Illya's government agencies. In uneasy circumstances, their respective superiors (including previous Ritchie collaborator Jared Harris) assign Solo and Kuryakin to join forces and work together to stop this nuclear threat, using Gaby as their inside girl. Their styles naturally clash between Solo's smoothness and Kuryakin's indomitable temper. Observing all of this is Alexander Waverly (the perfectly cast Hugh Grant), a British man of interest who is a business associate of the Vinciquerra network. Ritchie's film acts as an origin story and prequel of sorts to how the U.N.C.L.E. program got started where the Americans, Brits, and Russians started working together against common Cold War enemies while watching their back against each other.
In true spy movie fashion, the twists, turns, double crosses, and double agents pepper in nicely beside lavish locations, smooth style, and cunning action sequences. There is rarely a dull moment in this movie treatment and the prerequisite eye candy is present for both genders. Call him a "Ken" doll on the outside all you want, but Henry Cavill is at the top of his game for action, sexiness, and coy intrigue. This is his cup of tea. The comparisons to a Roger Moore-era James Bond are more than appropriate. Armie Hammer tip-toes in and out of a terrible Russian accent as the straight man, but he holds his own with his physical presence. Cavill doesn't get all the fun. The ladies nearly steal the show. Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Debicki tower out of their high heels and high fashion as a very empowered presences of heroine and villainess.
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