"Elly Conway" (Bryce Dallas Howard) lives in her remote lakeside home writing spy novels that are going down a storm. Her conclusion to the fifth in the series about the eponymous, "007"-style agent perplexes her mother, though. What happens next? Well wait til book six would seem to be the obvious answer, but mom (Catherine O'Hara) insists so "Elly" decides to take train to visit her parents - and that's mistake number one. Onboard she encounters a rather scruffy looking chap "Wilde" (Sam Rockwell) who is reading one of her books. She tries to hide her identity, but when he gets to the fly-leaf then her secret is out. That's soon the least of her worries as she and travelling cat "Alfie" are soon caught up in something straight out of one of her books! She can't fathom why she'd conceivably be the target for any nasty people, but her new found friend soon convinces her that there is someone she has to meet - and pretty quickly she's embroiled in an whole new world of mystery, intrigue and danger! It's a bit of a slow start this film, with a slightly annoying flicking between her real life and those of her characterisations (that's where the "Action Man" style of the sparingly used Henry Cavill appears) but once we establish who is who and what's going on, we are straight into "Man from U.N.C.L.E." territory with loads of rapid-fire escapades that though hardly original, do have some fun twists and turns as we progress to a denouement that is derivative, but still quite enjoyable to watch. The initial concept is quite original and though the execution largely an amalgam of other Matthew Vaughn features, it still works quite well even if it is far too long, with Rockwell clearly having some fun here and the cat remaining largely contained in it's capsule throughout!

Such a peculiar film. Everything about it feels off. I was initially a little unsure as to what I thought about <em>'Argylle'</em>, but in the end: it's a no from me. I couldn't actually tell you one thing that I properly liked about this, like at a push Sam Rockwell and Bryan Cranston are decent but even they get a bit hit-and-miss. There's just a constant tinge of lousiness that follows around throughout. Bryce Dallas Howard feels miscast, even if she is fairly likeable. Henry Cavill is wooden (intentionally? doubtful), as is Dua Lipa but the musician has enough charm to make it work slightly. Speaking of music, all that is used here is alright but again feels off - mostly seems like the correct type of song, just the wrong exact choice of song... "Electric Energy" might grow on me, though. What also doesn't help is the unavoidable feeling that it is a bad redo of <em>'<a href="https://letterboxd.com/films/in/kingsman-collection/by/release-earliest/size/large/" rel="nofollow">Kingsman</a>'</em>, which is expected given who directed this and all that they are planning with the two flicks behind the scenes. I'm all for a shared universe, though this is perhaps too on the nose. There are also <em>'<a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/the-lost-city-2022/" rel="nofollow">The Lost City</a>'</em> (itself echoing <em>'<a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/nims-island/" rel="nofollow">Nim's Island</a>'</em>) vibes sprinkled in too. Another negative is the special effects, especially at the start... less said, the better. Overall, I think it all boils down to being a poor film - unfortunately, as I kinda wanted to like it but simply couldn't. Actually, it's just come to me, I just remembered a scene I actually did truly enjoy: the one with Leona Lewis' "Run" track. That was actually entertaining.

What a disappointment. It tried to be a little Long Kiss Goodnight, Bullet Train, Bugs Bunny and James Bond. The CGI is horribly bad. Love Dallas in most things but in this she was fine as the author character but so unbelievable as the action spectacular spy. Sam Rockwell was great, as usual and the rest did a serviceable job but the story was horribly executed. The colorful, smoke bomb, ballet gunfire gauntlet scene was absurd. And what's with the repetitive use of the new Beatles tune? Didn't fit and slowed the action down. And the use of Henry Cavill and John Cena was confusing, silly and not needed. Promising beginning that crashed and burned.