Argylle - Fun Enough Action Comedy but not as Impressive as Other Movies of this Genre

This was the movie that I was aiming to see during the weekend, but I only managed to do so on Sunday after failing to get proper seats the day before. My wife and I went to the cinema that was a bit further than our favorite place, but we were confident it would have plenty of seats that we like. And indeed it was. So how was the movie then? Let's find out more, shall we?

Brief Story Line

Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard - Jurassic World Dominion, Pete's Dragon etc) was a successful author of best selling spy novels which focused on the character Agent Argylle (Henry Cavill - Enola Holmes 2, The Man from U.N.C.L.E etc) and his partner Wyatt (John Cena - Peacemaker TV series, Doolittle etc). As she was finalizing her latest book, Elly decided to visit her mother Ruth (Catherine O'hara - Elemental, Beetlejuice etc) for brain storming. But during her trip, she was getting hunted by people said to be agents from a dirty spy organization led by Ritter (Bryan Cranston - Power Rangers, Breaking Bad TV series etc), and she was saved by a rogue agent named Wilde (Sam Rockwell - See How They Run, Trolls World Tour etc).

Elly was shocked to find out the reason for her being hunted was due to her books were thought to be based on actual events. 

So what would happen to Elly and how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

When I saw the trailer to this movie few weeks before, I thought it had similarities to The Lost City which also focused on female author whose books seemed to be based on actual events and was caught in the middle of adventure like in her novels. So I was expecting the same kind of hilarious comedy combined with good action. However, despite having some humor, this one did not provide the type of hilarity that made me and my wife laugh out loud a lot. 

In term of action though, this one was really good at certain times, especially when involving Wilde. His fight style was nice to watch with some brutality here and there. The violence were not too extreme which would explain the rating of PG-13 (R13+ in Indonesia). Although few times the CGI were a bit obvious like the one in the early and final stages. My wife and I were in awe of the ones inside the train which were pretty well executed and fun, particularly when Elly was like hallucinating. But the colorful fights towards the end probably a bit too much which coincidentally reminded me of the movie Kingsman: Secret Service. Apparently these two movies were directed by Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust etc), so I could understand the likeness.

As for the story, my wife and I were quite excited with it. We thought it was unique, fun and got multiple twists that we did not really see coming (at least the first and maybe subsequent one). As fans of movies and series who have been accustomed on seeing twists, it was definitely refreshing that we could still be surprised by them, although some people criticized the movie for having too many of them. Now the duration of 139 minutes was something that I thought could have been shortened. I am usually fine watching a long film as long as it was filled with many scenes that were important and entertaining. But in this case, I thought it was a bit overly detailed in some parts.

The cast were generally fun to see. Bryce Dallas Howard seemed to enjoy herself here. Aside from the names I mentioned above, it also had other well known cast such as Ariana DeBose (West Side Story, The Prom etc) as Keira, Sofia Boutella (Rebel Moon, Atomic Blonde etc), Samuel L. Jackson (The Marvels, Protege etc) and even singer Dua Lipa. Btw, there was a mid end credit scene that showed possible plan for future of this movie. I read that Vaughn was thinking of making this the start of a new franchise with the ultimate goal of shared universe with his Kingsman movies. Unfortunately it was not well received by critics and audiences and the box office result in the first week was poor. So I think there is little chance it would go on as per his plan.

Overall my wife and I were quite pleased with the movie. Some of the action were entertaining, the twists were added plus for us, but the duration and the lack of really funny moments made it less impressive. My wife thought it was not memorable enough and the chemistry between two lead cast was not convincing. So if you decide to see this one and hoping for a full blown funny action comedy movie where you could continuously laugh due to the silliness of the characters, then you would not be satisfied. But if you just want to have some fun seeing some action and see if you could catch the twists, then you could give it a try. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars