Man from U.N.C.L.E. Review

By C. Moffat.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the new Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie - in contrast to my girlfriend who refused to even go see it, so I went alone. I give it 4 stars out of 5.

The film was excellent and without ruining the plot I would say it was one of the best / funniest spy thrillers / action films in recent memory. I would rank it up next to the last James Bond film, "Skyfall".


I had never watched the original TV series Man from U.N.C.L.E., but having seen the new film I now want to.

Film remakes of spy thriller TV shows are sometimes pretty hit and miss. Here are two examples:

The Saint (1997) = Awesome. 5 Stars.

The Avengers (1998) = Pretty dismal and ridiculous. I give it 1 star.

I should also note that sometimes even James Bond films are pretty dismal - and sometimes get worse over time. Let me give you an example:

Goldeneye (1995) was an awesome film when it first came out, and did well financially, but over time you start to realize all the plot holes and some parts of the film are downright boring after you've seen them X number of times.

Various other James Bond films also suffer from a touch of the boring, especially "Thunderball".

Which brings me back to Man from U.N.C.L.E. and why I gave it 4 stars. It was a great film. Thoroughly enjoyed it. However will it stand the test of time now that I have already seen it and know the plot twists??? Hmm. Not so sure.

The film did set itself up for sequels however and I would watch those too.

Maybe someday someone will redo the Matt Helm series (originally starring Dean Martin). The Austin Powers series is basically a rip off of Matt Helm, but I think a more sophisticated actor could do a better job.