Caught the film remake of the 60s tv show (which I’ve never seen) The Man from U.N.C.L.E. which, as far as I can tell, doesn’t require familiarity with the old show. This one stars Brit Henry Caville playing the suave American spy and the American Armie Hammer playing the Russian KGB spy. It’s still set in the 60s and the film is a deliberate throwback to ultra-suave (“mod”?) style spy movies and tv shows that 007 popularized and then Austin Powers spoofed much later.

This movie is a light bit of fun… very much style over substance but it does that style well. There’s a plot that makes sense and works to the extent the movie cares about it since it’s much more interested in the two brick mansions of male machismo in the starring roles and the sexy, sexy (and, to me, much more interesting) ladies. One of these ladies is on the good guy team and does great 60s dresses and white-frames sunglasses and the other is the sly supervixen who smolders before she hands you over to her hired goons. It’s a lot of silly fun.

And that’s about it. It’s a fun bit of piffly diversion… certainly worth seeing if you’ve already seen the much better spy movie Mission Impossible. Whether this needs or deserves a sequel, they set themselves up for one and I’d go see it. Sure. Why not?

Score: 81