Dearest Blog: today it was off to the pictures for a pair of
highly-anticipated (at least by me) titles: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and
Mr. Holmes.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.
First up: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
An American C.I.A. agent and a Russian K.G.B. agent reluctantly team up to keep a nuclear bomb out of dangerous hands.
Ladies
and gents, it will surprise exactly no one when I say I know nothing
about the original Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV series, aside from the fact
it's where Ducky from NCIS got his start. If you're looking for
comparisons between this big-screen outing and its small-screen
ancestor, I fear you'll have to look elsewhere.
On its own merits,
the big-screen Man from U.N.C.L.E. feels like it can't quite decide
what it wants to be. It's amusing, but not nearly funny enough to be
called a comedy. It's a little too silly to sell its attempts at drama.
There's some nice action, but none of the big stunts we've come to
expect from great action pieces. In other words, it's a lot of "what
might have been."
Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer are as
good-looking a pair of guys as you'll find anywhere, perhaps cinema's
most dashing double-leads since Newman and Redford. Unfortunately,
Cavill has all the charisma of a used lunch bag, and Hammer (whom I
adore, for the record) has been shoved into a role that never seems to
fit. They have a few genuinely good moments together, but overall it
seems a waste of two capable leading men.
Female lead Alicia Vikander is
absolutely stunning and absolutely unremarkable in every other way.
It's only when Hugh Grant turns up you feel like you've got someone who
knows what to do with a feature film. As mentioned, the action is good
fun at times, but nothing very exciting or new. There's espionage and
double-crosses and triple-crosses and none of it is ever much of a
surprise. Some of the locations are almost as pretty as Cavill and
Hammer, but if I had to name the one thing I actually really, really
loved about The Man from U.N.C.L.E., it'd be Daniel Pemberton's
fantastic score.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. clocks in at 116 minutes
and is rated PG13 for "action violence, some suggestive content, and
partial nudity."
It's a passable couple hours of brainless summer
fun, but, to be honest, if your cinema is still playing Mission:
Impossible-Rogue Nation, you'd do better just to see that again.
Of a
possible nine Weasleys, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. gets six.
Next on the docket, Mr. Holmes.
An elderly, failing Sherlock Holmes is haunted by a past blunder.
Dear
Reader(s), every once in awhile, even *I* need a break from car chases
and explosions, and this weekend my cinema was kind enough to
accommodate with this well-regarded showcase for Ian McKellen.
Mr.
Holmes is a pretty slow-moving vehicle; in the interest of making that
not sound like a negative, we'll call it "deliberately paced." This
movie is in no hurry to get anywhere, but that's not to say there's not
plenty going on. A couple of old cases nag at the edges of Holmes'
fading memory, and his declining health adds its own drama. McKellen and
Laura Linney are expectedly great, but it's the youngster Milo Parker
who steals the show, comfortably holding his own opposite his two
decorated co-stars. It's a quietly intense film that will have no
trouble holding your attention from start to finish.
Mr. Holmes runs 104 minutes and is rated PG for "thematic elements, some disturbing images, and incidental smoking."
A nice respite from shoot-em-up summer blockbusters, of a possible nine Weasleys, Mr. Holmes gets seven.
Until next time..
Somebody get me in the middle of that...STAT! :-)
