It ’s easy to see whatMatthew Vaughnwas going for withArgyllebecause he ’s already done it several times . The plastic film is a candy - color exercise in pop absurdism that , in its most horrid moments , necessarily call to mind Vaughn ’s Kingsman movies , each of which has ranged from slickly entertaining ( 2014’sKingsman : The Secret Service ) to irritatingly self - quenched ( 2017’sKingsman : The Golden Circle ) and disappointingly stale ( 2021’sThe King ’s Man ) . It bears many of the same hallmarks as those movies , including sequences in which its character casually vote out their foe while flagrantly brush off all laws of physics . Despite the precedent ready by his Kingsman movies , Argyllegradually emerges as Vaughn ’s most outwardly cartoonish effort to date .
It ’s the cockamamie film he has ever made by a long shot . That fact becomes clear long beforeArgyllehas extend to any of its jaw - droppingly absurd climactic fighting , some of which make the famously head - break loose third act ofKingsman : The Secret Serviceseem tame in equivalence . Unfortunately , what could have been a pleasingly Frankensteinian hybrid of a Looney Tunes cartoon , James Bond movie , and Nancy Meyers - inspired read-only memory - com is instead render one - note and dull by an obtrusively convoluted plot of ground and shockingly faineant , formulaic filmmaking .
Argyllebegins , as it should , in the middle of a phantasy . Its prologue follows Aubrey Argylle ( The Witcher‘s Henry Cavill ) , a handsome and open undercover agent , as he dance with and then pursues a dangerous light-haired seductress , LaGrange ( played briefly but memorably by Dua Lipa ) , across rooftops and through Grecian street . When he and his proper - hand adult male , Wyatt ( an underutilized John Cena ) , eventually catch up with her , the trio exchanges lines of dialogue that feel rip right out of the pages of a cheesy undercover agent novel . Through the plastic film ’s only effective digital changeover , Vaughn reveals that ’s because they are .
As the director soar up in on Cavill ’s lips , Agent Argylle ’s voice is replaced by that of his creator , author Elly Conway ( Bryce Dallas Howard ) , who promptly finishes reading an selection from the latest instalment in her popularArgylleseries . The film ’s opening following sequence , it turn out , was nothing more than a chapter from Elly ’s most late book , and the minutes that abide by propose a coup d’oeil into her quiet , apart biography with her lone fellow traveller , a cat named Alfie . However , when Elly room a train the next twenty-four hours to inflict her female parent , Ruth ( Catherine O’Hara ) , her journeying is disrupt by Aidan ( Sam Rockwell ) , a rough - and - quick spy who saves her from being becharm by a 12 villainous confidential agent .
After Aidan whisks Elly off to a remote safe business firm , he explains that the events of her undercover agent novel have been so inexplicably prescient that she ’s become a target of the Division , an evil organization melt by the slimy Ritter ( a tantrum - chewing Bryan Cranston ) . She and Aidan are afterwards wedge to team up up with Alfred Solomon ( Secret Invasion‘s Samuel L. Jackson ) , an honorable former CIA director , to take down the Division before it can successfully spread over up all of its many globose crimes . Plenty of chaotic pursual , showdown , and set pieces follow , most of which miss the kind of finesse that viewers have fare to expect from Vaughn , who seems to be operating on autopilot for much of the film .
For the most part , Argylle ’s activeness scene fall scant of Vaughn ’s own undeniably mellow standard . Nearly all of them are accompanied by superfluous pop songs that , combined with the celluloid ’s poor , streaming - service quality kindling and distractingly tough CGI , make them more grating than gratifying or thrilling . Two last - moment fights in the Division ’s headquarters are far more effective than all those that come before them , butArgylle‘s legion tale missteps make it difficult to to the full delight in the sheer goofiness of the scenes in query .
The film , thankfully , does n’t take itself too severely , but Jason Fuchs ’ script tries so laborious to invariably offend you thatArgylle ’s preposterously give away final set opus feel out of place in a movie that is never as fun as their inclusion suggest . Several of its 2d - act pull work surprisingly well , but the film never block up trying to top itself by throw out one subversive swerving after another until its runtime has reached a bloated 139 minute , and its initial cleverness has get down to resemble desperation . It ’s a moving-picture show that forces witness to completely suspend their sense of incredulity but keeps getting lost in the minutiae of its own narration — call for that you simultaneously engage with its plot and cut its illogical aspects .
The movie ’s casting sample valiantly to lift it up despite its flaws . Rockwell , Cranston , and O’Hara , in particular , bring so much passing charisma to their performances thatArgylleis able to fall a sealed amount of grace early on . It , alas , squanders it the same manner that it does the talent of many of its performer , include Cavill , who is give what amounts to piffling more than an extended cameo role here , and Howard , who tries desperately to betray everything that ’s ask of her . The motion-picture show never provide Elly to produce into anything more than a plot gimmick because it only knows how to do one matter .
It ’s the blockbuster combining weight of a novel that ends every sentence with an exclamation point , and by the fourth dimension Vaughn has setArgylle ’s concluding legal action chronological sequence to yet another generic pop song , you ’re already exhausted and annoyed enough to need to just put it down .
Argylleis now playing in house .
