What is going on, everyone?. Come with me to a press screening and check out the new Matthew Vaughn action-adventure spy film by the name of “Argylle.” Before we get into the theater, here are my expectations and hopes for this movie. I’m a big Matthew Vaughn fan, y’all. If you don’t know, I think “X-Men: First Class” is one of, if not the best X-Men in the franchise with the Fox X-Men movies. Of course, I’m a big fan of “Kick-Ass.” I love the first “Kingsman.” I actually liked the prequel “Kingsman” that they did a couple of years ago. But I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t the biggest fan of “Kingsman 2,” and there are a couple of other movies in the filmography that I think are okay, but I’m looking forward to this.
I really enjoy this cast. The trailer didn’t really sell me too much, but one thing I know about Matthew Vaughn: expect the unexpected. So, I’m hoping for a nice, good fun adventure with some surprises. Before I go check out this movie and come back and let you all know my thoughts, if you haven’t already, consider hitting that thumbs up, let me know if you’re looking forward to this film and what your hopes and expectations are. And of course, consider subscribing to the channel. Fingers crossed it’s a good movie. I’ll see you guys on the other side. Time for you to meet the real Agent AR.
Initial Reactions After Watching Argylle
Guy: Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Alright, everyone, so I just got done watching “Argylle,” and as I said before I went in, I’m a Matthew Vaughn fan. I like this cast. I love this cast. I’m a big fan of the spy genre, and I gotta say, man, I was not a fan of this movie. Let’s just start off with the positives first. So, one thing about Matthew Vaughn, as I said before I went in, expect the unexpected, and I was not expecting certain things. I’m sticking to the positive. There is a style, there’s a flare, there’s a heartbeat in this film. Like, there’s one thing you can’t say about Matthew Vaughn, and that is that he’s a boring director without style or without a certain flair to him, and this film does have those moments where it’s moving at a certain pace.
It does slow down at some moments, and we’ll talk about that in the negatives, but I do like that, at least there’s not a boring movie. I’ll say that even though I don’t like a lot of the stuff, the fundamental storytelling and the script and some of the stuff going on, but I still like Matthew Vaughn as a director, even though I wasn’t a fan of this directing style that he brought to this one. As far as the overarching story and things of that nature, but again, we’re sticking to the positive.
But Sam Rockwell could do no wrong in my eyes. Like, out of this entire star-studded cast, from Henry Cavill, Sam Jackson, Bryce Dallas Howard, who we’ll talk about here in a second, but Sam Rockwell saved this movie for me because he’s bringing that Sam Rockwell flair, and even though I don’t like “Iron Man 2,” he’s bringing that kind of personality to this character that we see in this film as he is the spy that is trying to help Bryce Dallas Howard’s character make it through this narrative.
And I guess let me backtrack a little bit. If you all aren’t too familiar with “Argylle,” it is essentially a meta-type of movie. Without giving too much away, Bryce Dallas Howard, she is a book writer. She writes these novels about spies and these crazy adventures with Henry Cavill as Argylle, the kind of James Bond of the world that she created. And as you find out, the books that she makes are almost beat-for-beat of actual real-world, or in the case in this movie, real-world-like spy espionage things.
A group of people is looking for her because she knows too much. So Sam Rockwell is the agent that’s protecting her from the people that’s trying to get information on how she knows so much and trying to help them. Spy film, y’all. If you’ve seen one spy film, you’ve seen them all. But Sam Rockwell, I thought was the saving grace of this movie.
I really enjoyed Bryce Dallas Howard, and I also like her behind the camera in recent years with the stuff she’s doing with “The Mandalorian” and “Star Wars.” And in this movie, there’s a charm to her. I like that she kind of plays the character that doesn’t know what they’re capable of and knows what they’re really into, and she plays that well. But the other side of what the character’s given, I didn’t really buy into it all the way, but I like her presence on screen, and she’s someone you even if you don’t like the traits of the character, you like her as an actress, and she plays up to certain elements outside of that.
Critique of Argylle
Man, I was not vibing with it, man. This, to me, felt like an adult Disney Channel “Spy Kids” movie. Like, I mentioned earlier how I like “Kingsman,” “Kick-Ass,” the prequel to “Kingsman,” but the thing I didn’t like about “Kingsman 2” is like Matthew Vaughn went too much into the silliness and the absurdity of the story. Like, Julianne Moore, like if you didn’t like “Kingsman 2,” you probably won’t like this film because this reminded me a lot of “Kingsman 2,” and it just didn’t vibe with me tonally because it’s a meta movie. It’s a movie within a movie, essentially, right? And to me, the stuff that the character was writing was ridiculous, cheesy, corny lines. It was almost like Matthew Vaughn is having like commentary and poking fun at the tongue-in-cheek or over-the-topness or cheesiness of spy films, right? But then, when we cut into the reality of the situation and we have our main character with Sam Rockwell trying to survive all these agents coming for her, you would have thought that that would have been more grounded, but no, that’s more absurd than the books that she’s writing.
So, like, tonally, it’s like, what are we getting at here? They feel like they should be the opposite of what you’re trying to do in these books, but you’re doing it and you’re turning up to another level. So the tone didn’t really work for me. I found a lot of jokes to be, like I said, a Disney Saturday morning-like adult “Spy Kids” type of humor. Like, there are some moments of levity that I found to be pretty funny. Again, Sam Rockwell really plays into some of the comedy beats, but most of the jokes fell flat, and again, comedy’s very subjective, but I didn’t like a lot of the comedy beats in this film. I wish this film was just rated R and just fully leaned into the craziness.
But you can tell that they’re restricted, they’re pulling back. Like, if you’re going to go crazy, go full crazy. I wanted more from a lot of the other supporting characters. Like, I’m a big Henry Cavill fan, and he’s, again, I knew that he was a made-up character, but I wanted more of that character. John Cena’s in this film, Sam Jackson’s in this film, Sophia Bella’s in this film. By the way, I’m not spoiling that, they’re all on the poster. But I just didn’t really vibe with the movie, and it’s almost two and a half hours, and I swear to you all, it has like 19 endings. Like, I wanted… and that’s for me, when I’m looking at my clock and I’m getting tired of like, what’s going on, I’m like, can we just end this? That’s how I felt like the last 30 minutes of this movie.
Other negatives, and I don’t want to rant because I do like Matthew Vaughn, but I just didn’t really vibe with this movie. This movie looks bad. Like, this felt like a pandemic-made movie. Like, everything felt like they were on a green screen, and the movie felt like it was almost incomplete. Like, the visuals were that bad. And I’m not degrading the people that do the color grading, that shot the film, but this looks like a bad movie. VFX look very shoddy. The opening sequence with Dua Lipa, like, just a lot. And then there’s a sequence with this skating and this… It’s a very like, Matthew Vaughn has a very colorful, beautiful color palette that I really enjoyed for the most part, but this was just an ugly film in my opinion. As harsh as that might sound.
But action scenes didn’t look that good to me. Like, they looked… They were poorly choreographed, they were computer-generated. There was a movie that came out a couple years ago with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum by the name of “The Lost City,” I believe. I liked that a lot more than I like this. And the whole marketing thing about who’s the real Agent Argylle, don’t hold your breath on that reveal. It didn’t work for me on a lot of different levels. The tone, the story, there’s so many unnecessary twists and turns. Again, I understand it’s supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, kind of fun poking fun at the genre, but it just didn’t vibe with me. Matthew Vaughn, big fan of your work, sir, but can we step out of the spy genre? You’ve been like stuck in the spy genre for like a decade now, “Kingsman,” “Kingsman 2,” “Kingsmen,” the prequel, and now this. Like, can you step out? Just take a break from this genre.
This one just didn’t work for me. I might be in the minority with this one ’cause when I was sitting there with the audience, this was a mixture of critics and regular audience moviegoers. People were laughing, people were having fun. So I might be in the minority on this, and I’m fine with that because I love when people can find things they like, and sometimes you come across things you don’t like. And I did not like this film. So, with all that being said, I’m going to give “Argylle,” pains me to say this, but I’ll give it a 2.5 out of five. There are moments of levity that I had fun with, with Sam Rockwell, like I said, being the saving grace. I like the charm of Bryce Dallas Howard. I just found like she was just kind of miscast if I’m being honest with you, and there’s a switch in a character that just didn’t really buy into.
And then it’s just, again, tone didn’t work. It’s way too over the top. There’s no groundedness, there’s no stakes. The jokes didn’t work for me, and the film just didn’t work for me. So, 2.5 out of five for me in my car for “Argylle.” I’m still a big Matthew Vaughn fan, but hey, every now and then, some of your favorite directors sometimes give you a dud, and to me, again, this is my personal opinion, this was a dud in my personal opinion. So, and also too, just a little side note, I didn’t know this was an Apple-produced movie. Like, I believe this is going to be an Apple Plus in a couple of months once it kind of hits its theatrical run.
If you have been following the Netflix formula of spy genre action films, “Heart of Stone,” the new Kevin Hart film, “Lift,” “Red Notice,” like this is in that same vein. Like, this looks like a streaming movie, and not in the best way. So, I’m going to leave it at that. Take it as you will. Are you going to still see “Argylle?” If you did, let me know. If I was wrong, man, let me know what you liked, favorite moments. Did you have a good time without spoiling it based on that ending? Post-credits, do you want to see more of what things were alluded to? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Man, I really wanted to like this more than I did, but it just didn’t work. But that’s okay. You all have been awesome. Hope you’re staying safe, and I’ll catch you all on the next video. Yeah.
