Argylle 🔫 REVIEW:

Reclusive author Elly Conway writes best-selling espionage novels about a secret agent named Argylle who's on a mission to unravel a global spy syndicate. However, when the plots of her books start to mirror the covert actions of a real-life spy organization, the line between fiction and reality begin to blur. Matthew Vaughn is quite possibly one of the most underrated directors working today. There are a couple of his films I haven’t seen, but I personally consider the first two Kingsman films, Kick-Ass, and X-Men: First Class to be some of my favorite comic book movies. For those who are walking in to his newest spy comedy Argylle, there are a few things to keep in mind in terms of managing one’s expectations. While Henry Cavill is plastered all over the marketing and posters, his actual screen time is barely 15 minutes. I also would highly recommend staying away from viewing the trailers, as they can be fairly spoiler heavy. The movie primarily centers around best selling spy novelist Elly Conway played by Bryce Dallas Howard and she does a great job here. If anyone has ever written anything and has had writer’s block in the past, her character is almost immediately relatable and easy to root for. While Howard takes the lead, it’s Sam Rockwell who completely steals the show as this spy who must protect Elly for reasons I won’t get in to.

The chemistry between Howard and Rockwell is quite literally electric, and the two of them make for a fun unlikely duo, especially during the hyper stylized action sequences. Props to Matthew Vaughn, his cinematographer, and the incredible stunt team for pulling off such balls to the wall maneuvers. Sure, a lot of it is glazed with CGI, but it fits the fantastical spy world in which the film takes place. One sequence in particular involving Howard and Rockwell fighting off bad guys while “dancing” had me grinning ear to ear and laughing all the way. The audience was fully engaged, clapping, whooping, and I was having a ball. Another thing that really works is how Vaughn cleverly shows how Elly views spies operating in the real world. She oftentimes imagines her fictional character of Argylle (Cavill) in the place of Sam Rockwell’s character during fight scenes, and that made for some truly hilarious moments. The supporting cast is stacked here, with Bryan Cranston, Samuel L Jackson, John Cena, and Sofia Boutella, among others. Cranston is having a blast playing the villain here and there is a twist involving his character that I truly did not see coming. The set design is exquisite, the costumes are just perfect, the music is catchy, and there are plenty of hysterical scenes with the much advertised CGI cat.

Unfortunately, not everything comes together as coherently as it should and the movie suffers from an overly convoluted plot that requires characters to go on full blown exposition dumps on more than one occasion to explain everything. Some twists don’t work, and others took me and the audience I saw it with by surprise. The issue is that the film is two hours and nineteen minutes, which makes much of the second act a major hub for the super complicated exposition dumps I previously mentioned. The film would have easily benefited from being about thirty minutes shorter to tighten up the pacing and not get lost in the needlessly complex narrative. There is one mid credit scene and it is definitely worth sticking around for. At the end of the day, despite all my issues with the film, I wouldn’t deny that I had an overall fun time with it. This is a perfect date night movie to watch with a big crowd and not think too much about the various plot contrivances. Overall, although Argylle suffers from an overly convoluted plot and a bloated runtime, Matthew Vaughn’s spy comedy offers up just enough laughs, stylistic action sequences, and a fun duo in Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell to deliver a mildly amusing time at the multiplex.