Argylle

It's no secret that I love the Kingsman series. The original is potentially something I'd have in my Top 10 on any given day...it's a perfect blend of R-rated violence and wit, awesome action, and a compelling band of characters in a world full of espionage. The sequel, The Golden Circle, while lesser, is still great and gets WAY too much grief. Then there's The King's Man - a prequel - that's my least favorite of the three, but still entertaining thanks to Vaughn's direction. And all of that's not mentioning Vaughn's superhero masterpiece, Kick-Ass, which is a film I'd easily have in my Top 10 superhero films too.

If you don't care to re-read all of those reviews, then I'll summarize it with: Matthew Vaughn and his brand of action, humor, and storytelling is often a director I get a lot of enjoyment from. For me he's a butt-in-seat director, and I've been excited for his newest spy-parody-esque film, Argylle. Obviously, to see if there's any connection to the Kingsman universe (no spoilers here) but also because it looked fun. 

As reviews started piling in, I was appalled to see scores like 1 out of 10, 1 star, 2 star, 3 out of 10...one critic even gave it a 0 out of 10! Surely, that couldn't be the case? I mean seriously. I didn't even give this load of dogs**t a 0 out of 10. 

Luckily, I'm happy to report back those critics are whack (I almost wonder if we watched the same movie) and my sample size is more than just myself. My nearly packed theater on a Thursday night seemed to have a great time with Argylle. Perhaps certain critics missed the point where this story borders on parody? 

With that disclaimer out of the way, it's worth mentioning that Argylle out of the films I listed above, is probably near the bottom of the list. I believe it'll eventually place higher than The King's Man (given I don't remember a whole bunch about that movie), but it's not near the highs of Kingsman, or Kick-Ass, or even The Golden Circle. Personally for me, I can attribute that to a handful of minor reasons (CGI can be questionable, it's a bit too long, etc.) and two MAIN reasons. Reason 1 is that this breaks from Vaughn's traditional R-rating, and it loses some luster because of it. Part of the fun in Vaughn's films are the well-timed F-bombs and the fairly generous amounts of blood and gore. It ups the stakes, but feels decidedly more mature (even if it's not really). I guess I just assumed Argylle was R, so when the first foe goes down and there's not a speck of blood in site, I was bummed. What's that say about me? Probably that I need therapy...but I digress. 

Reason 2 is Bryce Dallas Howard. Now, before you go jumping down my throat, know that I generally like her. There was just something about her in this role that wasn't gelling for me. Some of her line delivery feels fakely over-eager ("I live on a lake!") and for what the role ends up becoming, I just wasn't buying it. You could ask me who I would have used instead and I wouldn't have a good idea/answer for you, but BDH didn't do it for me. 

Luckily, as with most Vaughn films, the casting is superb otherwise. Argylle is bolstered considerably by Sam Rockwell - in what will likely be one of the more fun roles in 2024 - and this is really his film as much as it is BDH's. Outside of those two, the roles are considerably more supporting in nature, but the likes of Henry Cavill (probably the MVP #2), John Cena, Bryan Cranston, Samuel L Jackson, and even Dua Lipa add star power to the whole thing. Ariana DeBose feels unfortunately underutilized though. 

This scene is bonkers, but fantastic

Then there's our story and action. Argylle is quite funny because of how silly it can be, largely poking fun at the spy tropes and common twists, but also with absurd action sequences that we're accustomed to from Vaughn. The story is purposefully convoluted - and yes, kinda dumb - but in an almost self-deprecating way. It has some well-earned emotional beats that, again, don't reach the highs of other Vaughn films (everyone remember the strobe-light sequence in Kick-Ass? Chills) but are fine here. The action ranges from utterly fantastic (a dancing, smoke hallway sequence is one of Vaughn's bests) to goofy (ice skating, anyone?) but consistently has that kinetic energy you look for from Vaughn, though, as mentioned, some of these are really hampered with questionably poor CGI. Throw in some good music, and you've got "lesser" Vaughn, sure, but still something you've likely not seen before. 

So no, Argylle is not destined to be one of the year's worst films, nor is it destined to be one of Vaughn's all-time greats. While it's unfortunate that it didn't follow Vaughn's usual boundary-pushing R-rating, there's still laughs and fun to be had in this colorful film with a lot of star power. I enjoyed it; I would likely watch it again, and I'd be willing to bet my theater full of smiling, laughing people would too. 

Rapid Rath's Review Score | 7/10