Movie Review - The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

2014

The Cast

I must be having a Reboot Session, what with watching this title as well as the 2010 version of A Nightmare On Elm Street and the 2013 The Lone Ranger.

This was another of my favourite television programs of my childhood with the suave spy Napoleon Solo (I mean what a great name - and a spy to boot) and Illya Kuryakin (try saying that when you're only six - English was hard enough...)

So I put off watching this film as I hated Guy Ritchie's take on Sherlock Holmes... and I'm not a great Mark Strong fan.  Well, I couldn't believe my luck, a Guy Ritchie film minus Mark Strong...

... and ...

A brilliant adaptation of the original series.  Right from the beginning, I was hooked.  Guy Ritchie does a brilliant job of recreating the sixties... the cars... the buildings... the clothes... the feel... It is awesome to behold.  And the fact that, on the whole, the special effects are real, only using CGI to mask wires, cranes, etc, is superb and makes the movie more believable, sometimes CGI can distance an audience if not used correctly.

The opening sequence, a car chase between a Trabant and a Wartburg is one of the best I've had the privilege to watch.  Truthfully, all the action sequences are marvellous and great to watch.

The directors of "Man of Steel - Batman vs Superman" and "The Lone Ranger" should take note that their leading men were exceedingly better in this movie than theirs.  In fact, Henry Cavill gives a performance as Napoleon Solo, that would also have made a great Superman, not the womanising and arrogant parts of his character, but the surety of the character and his vocals.  Armie Hammer is a brilliant Illya Kuryakin, who, in this movie, is more of a powerhouse and doggedly determined.  This difference from the original's character makes for a better dynamic between the two spies and a stronger film.

I also liked the idea that this is the story of the creation of U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement), and that we get to see a little bit of Waverly's background, again this makes for a stronger film, as well as stronger sequels.

This movie is all about style, right from the beautiful opening credits to the closing credits, and the soundtrack is no different.  It works so perfectly with the feel of the movie, adding to the action sequences, the romance, and even the comedy.

The only reason this didn't rate a 10 was the bloody annoying subtitle's - Guy, you chose the wrong font.

If you like stylised spy thrillers with great story telling, action sequences, and brilliant acting, that leave you feeling happy and invigorated then this is a "buy me" film.  Had I known it was so good I would've purchased at full price and not waited for the price drop.  Everybody deserves their money for this endeavour.

I give this Retro Remake a Spytastic 9 out of 10.

The Trailer

Book Review - Busy Body

Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body (2010)

Written By M.C. Beaton

Constable Press

6.5 / 10

Opening Sentence and First Paragraph -

Having found that her love for her ex-husband, James Lacey, had more or less disappeared, Agatha Raisin, middle-aged owner of a detective agency in the English Cotswolds, decided to hit another obsession on the head.

I'm a believer in the open sentence being one of the main ingredients of a story.  It's this section that should grab the reader and enthuse them to read on.  In this book, the above opening is pretty decent, it sets the scene, tells you some of Agatha's background and makes you wonder what her other obsession is.  Since I'm a newbie, not only to M C Beaton but also the Agatha Raisin series, this opening sentence set me up nicely for the unfolding story.

The story flows along at a steadily fast pace and the writing is never dull or boring.  For such a short book (only 244 pages), there's plenty going off, which for me slightly handicaps the story, because you have to loose other components to the tale; in this case characterisation.

There are a lot of incidental characters in the book and I know it would've been clogging to the narrative to give them all better characterisations, and some of them the reader would know if they had read the series from the start.  It would've been better had a few more of the important characters was filled out more.  Such as they were, there was no empathy created between myself and them so I didn't care about their outcome in the story.  Which is a shame as it would have made the story stronger.

This isn't really a whodunnit novel either as there are no clues for the reader to try and ascertain who the killer is; it's a step by step progress of Agatha Raisin and her detective team in their search.  That said, I did figure out who the killer was.  I accredit this to M C Beaton's writing style.  When you get to the scene where you meet the killer you just know they did it.

That said, these negatives are only small things, as there are a couple of twists that aren't deducible or guessable. There's also a murder which may be solved in later series books.

In conclusion, this is a well-written book, though it could have been a little more in depth to bring the reader more into the story.  At times, it seems a little over-stuffed, but it just stays on the right side of "too-much".  I did enjoy this book and read it through in just three sittings, though I'm not sure if I would read any of the other books in the series.