ARGYLLE : Tuesday 6th February 2024.

I saw the M Rated 'ARGYLLE' earlier this week at my local multiplex, and this spy action comedy film is Co-Produced and Directed by Matthew Vaughn whose previous feature film Directorial credits include his debut with 'Layer Cake' in 2004, then 'Kick-Ass' in 2010, 'X-Men : First Class' in 2011, 'Kingsman : The Secret Service' in 2014, 'Kingsman : The Golden Circle' in 2017 and 'The King's Man' in 2021. The film was released last week too in the US, cost about US$200M to produce, has so far recovered just US$41M, has garnered generally negative critical reviews and is apparently the first in a trilogy of films, with a third trilogy of films coming from Vaughn's Marv Studio that will see a crossover with the 'Kingsman' franchise.

Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), is the reclusive and introverted author of a series of best-selling espionage novels, whose idea of bliss is a night at home with her computer and her cat, Alfie (whom she adores and takes everywhere with her). She has just completed the draft of her fifth book in the hugely successful 'Argylle' series and calls her mother Ruth (Catherine O'Hara) for her opinion. Her mum read through the draft the previous night and thought is was great but the closing chapter needed more work, rather than leaving it as a cliffhanger for the sixth book in the series. Elly travel by train to visit her Mum so that they can complete the story together with a more concrete ending.

On the train journey, Elly is saved from an ambush by an actual spy, Aidan Wylde (Sam Rockwell), who explains to her that a devious organisation, known as the Division, has targeted her because her Argylle novels seem to have an uncanny knack of predicting their future. Aidan travels with a reluctant Elly to London, England in a private jet (with Elly admitting that she has a deep rooted fear of flying and it is her first time in a plane), hoping that her next chapter will reveal how to stop the Division. 

Once in London, the pair search for a Masterkey' that would help expose the Division that Elly had also referenced in her novels. After fending off a small and very well equipped army of the Division's agents, the pair decamp to a run down hotel to rest up and get refreshed. While Aidan is in the bathroom supposedly taking a shower, Elly overhears him on the phone speaking to someone about how he wants to put a bullet in her head. Elly calls her parents for help who get on the first plane bound for London, and agree to meet in a suite at The Savoy Hotel. As Ruth and Barry Conway (Bryan Cranston) arrive, Aidan reveals that they are in fact both operatives working for the Division sent to capture her, forcing him and Elly to fend them off before fleeing the scene, chased down by a group of the Division's agents. 

Escaping to France, Aidan and former CIA Deputy Director Alfred Solomon (Samuel L. Jackson) who resides in a high tech winery, reveal that Argylle is not entirely fictional and that Elly is in fact agent Rachel Kylle who was captured and brainwashed by the Division five years ago by the two people masquerading as her parents. She put her suppressed memories into her novels. With the latest Argylle novel, Elly was about to reveal the whereabouts of the Masterkey before her cover was blown.

Aidan and Rachel travel to Saudi Arabia, where they retrieve the Masterkey from Saba Al-Badr, the Keeper of Secrets (Sofia Boutella) but are soon cornered by the Division and are knocked out and brought to the Division's base. Ritter (Bryan Cranston), the Division's Director, reveals that Rachel was one of their most loyal assets, after which she offers to interrogate Aidan, subsequently shooting him in the chest. She also locates Alfred for them, but reveals that she in fact sent him the Masterkey, betraying the Division. Ritter stops the transmission and she and a surviving Aidan (after he has plugged himself with four shots of adrenalin) fight their way through the base, which turns out to be an oil tanker far out to sea, eventually killing him. Ruth, who pretended to be Rachel's mother previously, uses a mental trigger code to turn her on Aidan, until she is killed, after which Alfred finally receives the message at his French winery.

Agents Argylle, Wyatt (John Cena) and Keira (Ariana DeBose) the fictional agents from her novels are seen aboard a speedboat fleeing the oil tanker before it explodes into a ball of flame, with Elly's voiceover saying that for the first time Agent Argylle was free. In the closing scene Rachel resumes her novelist persona, and publishes her final novel in the series, where at a reading, the real Argylle reveals himself, much to her shock and confusion. In a post-credit scene, set some twenty years prior, a young Argylle is seen to be ordering a drink at The King's Man pub, where he is revealed to be a Kingsman agent, with the first novel being based on his life.

I didn't hate 'Argylle' but then I also didn't love it, and it some how manages to traverse the line between 'John Wick' (creative action aplenty) and 'Get Smart' (spy comedy romp) aided by some questionable CGI effects, an overly convoluted plot with more twists and turns than you could ever hope to poke a stick at, an excessive run time of two hours twenty minutes, but is just about saved by an ensemble cast who seem to be all in on the silliness most notably Howard, Rockwell and Cavill. Mathew Vaughn here once again demonstrates his skill at the colourful over-the-top action set pieces, but there is really very little new here that we haven't already seen in his previous 'Kingsman' and 'Kick-Ass' franchises, and so Mr. Vaughn, perhaps it's time for a radical rethink of your future filmography. 

'Argylle' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-