The Man from U.N.C.L.E (2015)

Elevator Pitch: Napoleon Solo, a CIA operative has the job of extracting a young woman, daughter of a German nulear physicist who is working for the Americans, from East Germanyin 1964. During the op they are picked on by Illya Kuryakin a KGB man, but eventually they all find themselves in the same place at the same time, forced by their respective governments to work together to save the world from a rogue organisation which has backmailed the young woman’s father into working for them, and therefore have a bomb in preparation.

Content: It is implied that Solo has casual sex with a hotel receptionist who we see in her nickers. They drink a bit, and Gaby, the young woman appears in many scenes in 1960s fashion. I think she might have worn a Mary Quant once. There are car chases in East German cars, a boat chase and a lot of gunfire in the finale when the SBS at recruited to attack the villain’s fortress. The agents bicker a lot but eventually become friends.

A View: I am old enough to remember the TV show and found myself wondering how Armie Hammer as Illya, a really tall actor, had been chosen to pair with Henry Cavill who is a fairly short actor. Exactly the opposite of what the TV show did. Other than that it was really Bond with a smattering of Len Deighton. It was expensive, but probably made its money back. It was moderately well liked by the critics but got a lot of ticks-up from the general public. Maybe a watch for nothing on a Sunday afternoon.

Additional Info: There are 137 items in the IMDb trivia, many of them obviously knocked up by the studio’s PR department. A hint, “make them shorter guys”.