The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)...

[Mr Light]

I saw the movie today and thought it was very solid. It was a little light on the action. I don't know anything about the original series.

I really loved Cavill in this movie, he was incredibly smooth and charming. I was actually disappointed that Hammer got more screen time because Napoleon was a much more interesting character.

 

[Starkers]

I finally got to see this last night and I really enjoyed it. It looked and sounded gorgeous, the cast were great and whilst I can see some argument for a lack of action, for me it was perfectly balanced--I especially liked some parts where the action was happening in the background (the boat chase was a hoot).

Cavill was great as Solo and though I was initially sceptical about Hammer his Ilya really grew on me, and considering he was initially portrayed as this imposing superman increasingly I saw flashes of boyish charm in his eyes that harked back to McCallum. Alicia Vikander was wonderful (that woman's going to have one heck of a career) and I like that, effectively, she was the girl from U.N.C.L.E

oddly Elizabeth Debicki came across better in the trailers, but she was still the most memorable of the villains and Hugh Grant was on top form. Special mention to Jared Harris who was practically unrecognisable.

It was funny and engaging and perhaps the best thing I can say about it was that it felt like a 60s' spy thriller, but I guess that may be why some don't like it, personally I loved that about it (although at times I thought Richie overdid the retro cinematography at the expense of plot, but that's a minor quibble).

Does anyone knew if this is doing better business now? It's been out a few weeks in the UK now but the cinema was still quite full last night.

My only real quibble is the theme tune, unless there was some issue with the rights I don't know why it wasn't included somewhere, even if only over the end credits ala Trek. Hell even the fricken Green Hornet film used the theme music. (I know someone said there was a vague hint of it in the soundtrack but I couldn't place it)

 

[Warped9]

^^ In the boat scene while Solo is having a snack in the truck while Kuryakin is being chased in the boat. Solo fiddles with the radio to get some music, and for a few seconds you hear the orginal series' theme playing before Solo tunes to something classical.

 

[Starkers]

^It's funny because I thought when he did that that this might be a good place to put the tune in, obviously need to clean my ears out!

 

[Mr Light]

So far the movie has done $55 million international against a $75 budget, so it has awhile to go to be considered successful and it probably won't get there.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=uncle.htm

 

[Starkers]

So far the movie has done $55 million international against a $75 budget, so it has awhile to go to be considered successful and it probably won't get there.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=uncle.htm

It's amazing what you can do with $75

Sorry

That's a shame, although it seems to suggest that once the dust settles and once the DVD sales come in it'll be far from being a disaster. Has it opened everywhere now?

 

[Warped9]

This is a goddamned shame. Yes, it's a spy adventure so there'll be some larger-than-life and some over-the-top to it, but it was refreshingly sane compared to so much of what's accepted as action movies today.

I was fine with the pacing and the balance of action. The action was where it belonged rather than being merely a series of action pieces stiched together with a bare bones plot to hang them on. It wasn't all flash and bang.

I liked the characterizations and the retro setting as well as the retro touches to how the film looks and unfolds.

 

[Trekkin]

I liked it, but it's not like say...Kingsman or Skyfall, where I rushed out an told people to go see it. I wanted to love it, but for some reason it never managed to quiet hit that sweet spot. MI:RN being so fresh in the mind didn't help and I kind of worry that if Spectre pays off, then this will just be totally forgotten. Which would be a shame.

It could pick up on the home release/VOD. That seems to be where good word of mouth pays off (if it pays off) these days. You could have knocked me dead when I found out Pacific Rim managed to get a sequel.

 

[Starkers]

This is a goddamned shame. Yes, it's a spy adventure so there'll be some larger-than-life and some over-the-top to it, but it was refreshingly sane compared to so much of what's accepted as action movies today.

I was fine with the pacing and the balance of action. The action was where it belonged rather than being merely a series of action pieces stiched together with a bare bones plot to hang them on. It wasn't all flash and bang.

I liked the characterizations and the retro setting as well as the retro touches to how the film looks and unfolds.

I agree completely I thought the pacing was spot on, and certainly way better than Rogue Nation which peaked in the middle, and I agree about a set of set pieces strung together. I don't mind films like that, in fact I enjoyed Rogue Nation, but is it too much to ask for films like this to do well as well?

I liked it, but it's not like say...Kingsman or Skyfall, where I rushed out an told people to go see it. I wanted to love it, but for some reason it never managed to quiet hit that sweet spot. MI:RN being so fresh in the mind didn't help and I kind of worry that if Spectre pays off, then this will just be totally forgotten. Which would be a shame.

It could pick up on the home release/VOD. That seems to be where good word of mouth pays off (if it pays off) these days. You could have knocked me dead when I found out Pacific Rim managed to get a sequel.

It's certainly no Kingsman, but it really does deserve to be doing better than it is. There is hope in the home release market, but then again I'm still waiting for Dredd 2 in that respect (and likely will keep waiting a long time )

 

[Warped9]

There are reboots where you ask yourself, "Why? Why did they bother?"

The original series hasn't aged well. The reunion TV movies were cringe worthy. Now this TMFU reboot fixes so much of what no longer worked and it's more than competent. It deserves better.

 

[Christopher]

The reunion TV movies were cringe worthy.

There was only one that I know of, The Fifteen Years Later Affair.

When I saw that movie on TV for the first time -- being not quite 15 years old myself -- I totally freaked out when I saw the music credits. Jerry Goldsmith? Gerald Fried? Awesome!!! I got some bewildered stares from my father and sister at the intensity of my reaction.

 

[Tulin]

Saw it Monday night - took the old man for his birthday, otherwise would never have seen it.

A bit of harmless fun - pretty entertaining.

Suffers from the "Modern Male Actors Spend Six Months Building Their bodies Up and Getting Buffed But are Reluctant To Take Their Shirts Off".


I'm getting mighty sick of it - from "Supernatural" to the Marvel films - for FUCK SAKE - you're neglecting MORE than half your audience - women and gay men!!!!!

 

[RJDiogenes]

Not like the 60s, when James Kirk and James West would take their shirts off at every opportunity.

 

[N-121973]

Well I recently bought the first season box set on DVD and have watched the first two discs worth. Its not bad though in the earliest episodes you can clearly see why it was called 'The MAN from U.N.C.L.E.' rather than 'The Men from U.N.C.L.E.' it started out as a very Napoleon Solo-centric show before David McCallum caught on with audiences.
Of special relevance to Trek? Last night I watched The Project Strigas Affair with of course William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. I wouldn't be surprised if it contained a moment of TV history, the first on-screen meeting between Nimoy and Shatner. It was a good episode and - aside from its light-hearted tone - it could have been an episode of Mission: Impossible.

 

[Forbin]

Well I recently bought the first season box set on DVD and have watched the first two discs worth. Its not bad though in the earliest episodes you can clearly see why it was called 'The MAN from U.N.C.L.E.' rather than 'The Men from U.N.C.L.E.' it started out as a very Napoleon Solo-centric show before David McCallum caught on with audiences.

The original title was, after all, "Solo." Ilya was strictly meant to be a second banana.

 

[Trekkin]

Speaking of Trek, wasn't Ricardo Montalban in one of those early B&W episodes?

I've seen a fair bit of the original show, but I'm not an authority on it (lack of official release here doesn't help. We get the first season in a few weeks.) I freely admit that it was because I was a bit of an Illya fangirl. Without him becoming a lead, I don't think I could have stuck with it.

Though I think I did prefer the look of the show when it was in B&W. It's not restricted to this series (I thought the same with Dark Shadows and Danger Man), but the B&W photography helped sell the mood and (I thought) covered up some of the 'cheaper' looking moments. Which is a bit weird, because at the time they tended to shoot in B&W because it was cheaper.

 

[Christopher]

Of special relevance to Trek? Last night I watched The Project Strigas Affair with of course William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. I wouldn't be surprised if it contained a moment of TV history, the first on-screen meeting between Nimoy and Shatner.

Yes, this is true. In fact, it's probably the one factoid that was most widely known about The Man from U.N.C.L.E. before the movie came out (aside from the fact that Ducky from NCIS was in it).

The original title was, after all, "Solo." Ilya was strictly meant to be a second banana.

Heck, not even that. Originally Illya was just a guest star, one of the various supporting UNCLE staffers who had one or two brief scenes in the pilot. He came off so well that they immediately decided to promote him to a regular. Although his presence was intermittent in much of the first season, since so many scripts had already been written on the assumption that Solo would live up to his name.

Speaking of Trek, wasn't Ricardo Montalban in one of those early B&W episodes?

Yes, in episode 12, "The Dove Affair." He played a Balkan secret-police chief (with an inexplicably Mexican accent, as always) who was a friendly rival with Solo as they competed for possession of the title McGuffin. Montalban returned in season 2 as a suave jewel thief in "The King of Diamonds Affair" -- his first appearance alongside John Winston (Chief Kyle), who also appeared with him in both "Space Seed" and The Wrath of Khan (the only person outside the main Trek cast to do so). "King of Diamonds" also featured Nancy Kovack (Nona from "A Private Little War") doing the worst English accent in an episode full of bad English accents, if not the worst English accent in the history of television. (Kovack’s delivery migrates freely between Prim English Governess and Scarlett O’Hara, with various unidentifiable stops along the way. Everyone else faking an accent in the episode is at least managing to fake a consistent one, but Kovack can’t even settle on a continent.)

 

[N-121973]

Of special relevance to Trek? Last night I watched The Project Strigas Affair with of course William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. I wouldn't be surprised if it contained a moment of TV history, the first on-screen meeting between Nimoy and Shatner.

Yes, this is true. In fact, it's probably the one factoid that was most widely known about The Man from U.N.C.L.E. before the movie came out (aside from the fact that Ducky from NCIS was in it).

The original title was, after all, "Solo." Ilya was strictly meant to be a second banana.

Heck, not even that. Originally Illya was just a guest star, one of the various supporting UNCLE staffers who had one or two brief scenes in the pilot. He came off so well that they immediately decided to promote him to a regular. Although his presence was intermittent in much of the first season, since so many scripts had already been written on the assumption that Solo would live up to his name.

Speaking of Trek, wasn't Ricardo Montalban in one of those early B&W episodes?

Yes, in episode 12, "The Dove Affair." He played a Balkan secret-police chief (with an inexplicably Mexican accent, as always) who was a friendly rival with Solo as they competed for possession of the title McGuffin. Montalban returned in season 2 as a suave jewel thief in "The King of Diamonds Affair" -- his first appearance alongside John Winston (Chief Kyle), who also appeared with him in both "Space Seed" and The Wrath of Khan (the only person outside the main Trek cast to do so). "King of Diamonds" also featured Nancy Kovack (Nona from "A Private Little War") doing the worst English accent in an episode full of bad English accents, if not the worst English accent in the history of television. (Kovack’s delivery migrates freely between Prim English Governess and Scarlett O’Hara, with various unidentifiable stops along the way. Everyone else faking an accent in the episode is at least managing to fake a consistent one, but Kovack can’t even settle on a continent.)

Apparently the original title was to be "Ian Fleming's Solo" since he originated the name (and possibly more) of the character along with Stephanie Powers' character April Dancer. The Bond producers got it changed to just "Solo" as they weren't too happy with Fleming's involvement with the show. Incidentally the pilot is a special feature on Disc one in colour and with that title. As for Trek Stars, James Doohan appeared as a couple of different characters. In an early first season episode I recently watched he was the first mate on a cargo ship, complete with English accent.

 

[Trekkin]

Funny enough, there's now a Bond novel that's just called 'Solo'. So the Australian cover reads:

Ian Fleming's 007

in

SOLO


It's in the bargain bin at our university bookshop and I've been eyeing it off, but I have no idea what it's about.

 

[Christopher]

Apparently the original title was to be "Ian Fleming's Solo" since he originated the name (and possibly more) of the character along with Stephanie Powers' character April Dancer. The Bond producers got it changed to just "Solo" as they weren't too happy with Fleming's involvement with the show.

Not quite. Fleming did co-create the series and the Napoleon Solo character along with Sam Rolfe. (Not surprising, since Solo is essentially an American James Bond.) But shortly thereafter, he used the same last name, Solo, for a villainous character in Goldfinger. Despite some mistaken reports, they were separate characters; but because of the shared surname, the producers of the Bond movies saw Ian Fleming's Solo as an infringement and sued the company. The settlement was that they could keep the character name Napoleon Solo, but could not use it in the show's title, and could not acknowledge Fleming as a co-creator. Which is how it became The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and how Rolfe got a solo creator credit.