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.
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Argylle, the latest spy riff from Matthew Vaughn, is overstuffed to the point of exhaustion as it hurls a seemingly endless barrage of twists at the screen which would make even M. Night Shyamalan blush. Initially, Vaughn's film has a breezy feel as it plays with a fun premises. The early action sequences that pepper in bits of Henry Cavill doing his best Bond impression is energetic and engaging. Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell have some fun chemistry with both making the best of their likeable onscreen charm. Howard is appropriately nebbish early on as insanity plays out around her. Rockwell seems to be having a blast playing the superspy guiding her and it all works fairly well in the film's opening act. Bryan Cranston hams it up as the film's central villain but much like the movie's plot, his performance gets progressively more exaggerated and outsized especially as the first reveal which alone would have been a fun thread to chase. Instead, that initial reveal is barely given anytime to breathe before another U Turn takes in another silly direction follow by another and another. There are a few fun action sequences interspersed between it all, but those slower moments are noticeably slow especially as the film gets more aggressively silly, highlighted by a colorful bullet filled dance and skating sequence which makes it clear that it’s all intentionally stupid. In a weird way, Vaughn and his cast end up delivering a modern day Naked Gun film which would have been fun if it weren't so incredibly overstuffed.
C-
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