#MovieReview: Argylle is another disappointing ‘meta’ action outing [Watch]
Ultimately, this is not the worst movie you will ever see by any means, but it could have been so much better.
Argylle tries so hard to misdirect you with twists that it gets itself completely lost in the process.
The latest from the “twisted mind of Matthew Vaughn” occasionally ends up playing like a worst hits compilation from his patented action comedy brand.
Despite some spirited performances from a generally likeable cast, this spy movie spoof largely falls flat.
Endless laugh lines deliver very limited actual comedy and the action itself leaves much to be desired, often ending in poorly rendered CGI chaos.
It follows a steadily downward trend from Vaughn over the last ten years, after he initially showed great promise.
With Layer Cake, Stardust and Kick-Ass he introduced himself as a capable director across different genres and budget points.
His next step into X-Men: First Class and Kingsman: The Secret Service put him into the conversation as one of the best action directors around.
But the following two entries in the Kingsman series, and now Argylle, have offered diminishing returns.
And it’s largely owing to this effort to have every movie wink at the audience.
Every action scene has to have ten different attempts at comedy before it concludes and it undercuts any reasonably executed set piece.
At some point, unless that high wire tone is perfectly delivered, it just seems like the director does not trust their movie to be taken at face value.
Perhaps it is also a result of studio pressure to try and have every big budget movie appeal to every kind of audience member.
So many different tones and ideas are trying to be cobbled together that the movies mostly end up as less than the sum of their parts.
Argylle, which offers plenty of promise at different times and is often enjoyable, is just trying too hard to be too many things.
You could probably enjoy it if it was playing on your third screen while you’re doing another activity, but I found it disjointed when watching in cinema.
The central twist is also a real reach that I did not think worked at all. Avoid spoilers if you would like to give it the best chance of working on you.
Ultimately, this is not the worst movie you will ever see by any means, but it could have been so much better.
Rated PG-13 for Violence, Action and Language.
2/5.
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