Argylle Review - Matthew Vaughn's Spy-Action-Comedy Is Messy & Illogical

Argylle Review: Spy-action-comedy movies are rare, but that could be an advantage to many. In its first half, Argylle shows why this genre can be so entertaining and refreshing, and then the second half explains how terrible it can turn out to be and why it shouldn't be made often. There are too many twists, which is actually good, but after a while, it goes over the board, over the head, or whatever you want to call it. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life," yells Aidan, aka Sam Rockwell, and you are like, "Yes! Then why the hell do you want us to believe it?" That's what happens with the entire second half of this movie as it goes from A to G to C to Z to T to again back to B. That's how MESSY it is. Too many twists make too much of a mess here.Argylle is about a spy novelist, Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), who has just finished her fifth book on a fictional agent, Argylle (Henry Cavill). For the next book, she decides to visit her mother, Ruth Conway (Catherine O'Hara), to brew some new ideas. On the train, she meets a real agent, Aidan (Sam Rockwell), who is on a mission to save her from a gang. Elly constantly imagines Argylle in place of Aidan while he is busy beating the gang and doing everything to save her. Aidan informs Elly that her novels are not fictional but are turning out to be true. She is a hell of a fortune teller, and that's why the bad gang is after her to get the hold of a certain master file before the good gang, aka Aidan, can get to it. But that's not even half of what you are about to see in the second half, so let's not spoil anything because there is a new twist every 10 minutes.The writing of Argylle sounds absurd in the first half, but it's damn funny. That's why you can carry on with it. The idea of merging a fictional agent with a real one and the events was somewhat interesting and was made watchable with a touch of comedy. The problem appears in the second half when you learn the truth about Elly, Aidan, and the gang members, including her parents. Every single theory starts annoying you, and then you get a horrible climax, full of mindless action and senseless ideas. From memory loss to brainwashing to even hypnotism, come on, man, that's just way above the line. That's too much. Argylle leaves you exhausted with the displeasure of watching 3–4 bad spy movies in that last hour. Can you imagine that?Bryce Dallas Howard as Elly Conway looks cute, but she has a deadly side to show too. Her punchlines don't come out as they should, but we can't think of any good female comedy statures after Barbie. The idea and standard have both changed now. Sam Rockwell impresses in some scenes and remains steady throughout the film. The handsome agent, Henry Cavill, is all what girls would make noise about. But the role? Let me change the subject. Bryan Cranston and Catherine O'Hara have a few surprises in store, but the performances aren't that good. Ariana DeBose, Dua Lipa, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson enjoy the screen time with their small supportive roles, while Sofia Boutella finds the best space amongst them. Alfie, aka Chip, the cat, will entertain you with her silence, but don't be surprised by her claws at the end.On the technical front, Argylle seemed okay, with some problems in the sound design. The cinematography was good, and the VFX work on those swipe-to-agents scenes was fantastic. You gotta give some credit to the screenplay writer for visualising those things on paper. It was a new experience, despite its stupidity. We aren't complaining about absurd humour here, and nobody minds that until it is making you laugh. Argylle fails to understand where to stop. You just can't expect us to believe every unreliable thing coming one after another for over a half hour. Matthew Vaughn's vision was too out of the line, too unimaginable, and unconvincing. He could have removed all those bunches of twists in the end and made a simple spy comedy, but he preferred to make it messy, and the results are not what spy movie lovers deserve. As a whole, Vaughan's attempt at over-novelization struggles to find the right ideas, so let's not open the book this time.