I never watched the original TV show, but a friend of mine did, and he was really excited about this movie. Even I could tell they really put some effort in this. You get thrown back into an era you might (very likely) not know. But that shouldn't take away the fun you can have with this.

It's a mystery why this underperformed at the box office, but might have to do with the fact, that people could not really tell what this is. The TV show is not as accessible as other (A-Team, Mission Impossible and so forth). If you get a chance and you like spy comedies, you should check this out. Even if it goes a bit overboard towards the end (a twist that doesn't make too much sense),it still pretty fun

This film is set in the early sixties and opens in East Berlin as CIA agent Napoleon Solo attempts to extract a German woman, Gaby Teller. Her father had worked for the Nazi missile programme before being taken to the United States; now he has gone missing and is presumed to be working for a group that will make atomic bombs for anybody who will pay them. A Soviet agent, Ilya Kuryakin, who is clearly highly skilled, tries to stop them but is ultimately unsuccessful. Shortly afterward, in West Berlin, the three of them are reunited and they are told that they will be working together in a joint US/USSR mission. Travelling to Rome, with Ilya posing as Gaby's fiancé and Napoleon posing as a thief they make contact with Gaby's uncle and attempt to find her father and infiltrate the criminal organisation.

As a child I enjoyed watched repeats of the original TV show so was a little unsure about watching this new version. I needn't have worried. As it tells a story of Napoleon and Ilya's first mission together no prior knowledge of the characters is needed. The early scenes to a fine job of introducing the key characters and their mission. The action gets started early and continues throughout; it is exciting without being gory... in fact the style reminded me of early Bond films but with the level of humour turned up. The humour was unforced and didn't get in the way of the story. Everything about the film adds to the sixties feel without it becoming a pastiche. The cast is solid with Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer impressing as Napoleon and Ilya respectively and Alicia Vikander delighting as Gaby. Elizabeth Debicki also does a fine job as antagonist Victoria Vinciguerra. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to fans of lighter '60s spy thrillers; it captures the feel and delivers laughs and excitement... along with a few good twists.

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. is another dud from British director Guy Ritchie, who has been churning out one poor-quality film after another for the last twenty years after he did so well with LOCK, STOCK and SNATCH. This is supposedly a new version of the classic 1960s television series but aside from the character names it has no relation to that show. Instead, this is a very poorly-made Cold War thriller in which a US spy and a Russian spy have to team up to tackle a terrorist bomb threat. This is one of those films that has absolutely no idea what it's meant to be. It's not funny at all, and both Cavill and Hammer are stiff and awkward in their roles. There's little in the way of interesting action sequences and in between the 'moving' scenes the pace slows down to a real crawl. Don't expect one single moment of suspense or anything associated with suspense or normal thriller film elements. It says something when an extended Hugh Grant cameo is the most interesting thing in the whole picture. As is usual for the actress, Alicia Vikander is cast in a femme fatale role but comes across as a child playing dress up.