The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Movie Blurb by Shale August 14, 2015 This movie is based on a Cold War era TV show by the same name, which I never watched. Ironically, the reason I never watched it was being out of country spying on the Soviet Missile Command radio com in the Cold War. So, the history is very real and they had an opening montage of that history (probably for ppl who weren't there) before the first scene, which took place in 1963. This is where CIA operative Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) is sneaking into East Berlin to smuggle chop shop auto mechanic Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander) to the West. However, the Soviets have their man in place to stop that and the action begins. Gaby & Solo in East Berlin Car Chase We find out when Solo meets with his handlers that he is one of their best operatives but not willingly. Seems he was a good thief who got caught and is working off his sentence instead of being in prison. Also, he learns that there is a bigger issue than with the Soviet Union. There are criminal elements making a nuclear bomb that will upset the balance of power. (Remember MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction was what kept the thermonuclear war from actually happening). So, the Soviets send one of their best KGB operatives, Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) to work with Solo and the rescued Gaby to infiltrate the criminals who are using Gaby's rocket scientist father to make the bomb. Of course there are a few pissing contests between Ilya and Solo but eventually they work as a team. Illya & Solo Working Together There are more action scenes, mostly in Italy with everyone posing as someone else and no one knows exactly if or when covers are blown. Ilya and Gaby are supposed to be engaged and we see some flicker of romance from time-to-time but who knows who can be trusted. Illya Checking Gaby's Wire And they get separated, each in the clutches of the criminal element so there is a little suspense occasionally. Gaby Undercover with Criminals All thru the movie I kept thinking what other reviewers would make of this and my observation was, it had a lot of style but little substance. Surprisingly I was not alone in that assessment. On Rotten Tomatoes the aggregate critics' consensus is, "The Man from U.N.C.L.E. tries to distract from an unremarkable story with charismatic stars and fizzy set pieces, adding up to an uneven action thriller with just enough style to overcome its lack of substance." However, they did give it a 68% Fresh. And, like me, 80% of audiences liked it. I enjoyed the movie, which is less serious than the usual spy movie. Also liked it for its style but I was actually there during the period so it was fun revisiting the era.
not trying to be negative..but like the tv series, the movie sucks big time. color was to overdone for a 60s remake even on my low band interboob.. nobody can do a robert vaughn on screen .. as retro tv viewer, I see man from uncle every week. my god this show is stupid.. whats next voyage to the bottom of the sea?... maxwell smart is one up on mfu.
Still haven't seen it, but the previews looked pretty incredible imo. And shit. It's Superman! He's... Superman!! Speaking of Cold War, and since this thread hasn't been derailed yet... Have you heard of UVB-76? AKA 'The Buzzer' It's a shortwave radio broadcast that started in the Cold War era and afaik is still broadcasting to this day. It creates roughly 25 'buzzing' sounds per minute (which has increased and decreased over the years as it switched to an AM frequency in the 70's I believe? And changed a few times over the years). Every once in a while the buzzing is interrupted by two people having a conversation, sometimes strange music being played, or a man speaking in Russian code. They even traced where they had believed the signal was coming from and dismantled the old radio station. To their surprise, the station was still broadcasting! They've triangulated the position of the broadcast to a secondary radio station somewhere in Russia and people have hypothesized about it's origin for a long time now. Here's a bit more info if you're interested. There are many more videos on youtube that touch on this subject and recordings of the broadcast being interrupted. There's even a website that's been recording the audio and has records that go back for quite some time now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZzbVIqDdUU
