ARGYLLE or the Real Supervillain is THE SCRIPT! (Review)

As much as it is not pleasant to see terrible films like Strays or Trolls: Band Together it is a different kind of agonizing experience to see films loaded with potential that are almost good but make crucial mistakes that sink them. This is my experience with the new action comedy Argylle from director Matthew Vaughan. For about the first 45 minutes I was really enjoying it. It takes about that long for the first twist to be revealed and I was on board and having a good time with the films energy and the engaging cast.

Then as if encouraged by the first twist there’s another, and another, until it all becomes too much. Unfortunately the blame for this frustrating experience has to be lain at the feet of screenwriter Jason Fuchs. Somebody needed to go to him and say hold back. The first twist was all that was necessary. Sam Rockwell and Bryce Dallas Howard are great together (they are the leads of this film not Henry Cavill and his horrible haircut. The cat literally has more time than Cavill.)

The narrative does take the viewer around the world and there are some inventive sequences but there’s never any sense of tension because it’s all divorced from any kind of reality to take seriously.

If Argylle had taken a page from the underrated Knight & Day and taken Howard and Rockwell on a madcap espionage adventure I would have been all in. Like I said, even the first twist I enjoyed but it just becomes too much. Also some of the supporting cast is shamefully wasted including Samuel L Jackson who literally sits at a desk waiting for a file to download for most of the film.

There are sequences in the film that look fresh and inventive; however, there are others that are surprisingly cheap and shoddy looking. We certainly expect much better from a $200 million action movie from Apple. The whole thing should and could have been much better. It’s beyond frustrating to see something so close to being great but it botches in execution.

5 out of 10

Frown Worthy