Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle

I’m still interested. I might see what the audiences say and then make a decision.

If nothing else, I can always just go on Tuesday. That’s when tickets are cheap at my theater.

The critics are, if anything, too kind: this movie is a piece of shit. Surely the worst thing I've ever seen Matthew Vaughn make.

There are two or three moments where the man who made the Kingsman movies come alive at their best is present, and no moments where the dude who did the same with his wonderful crime movies is. The acting is basically fine(although Jackson has very strong "I am doing a favor for a friend" energy), but it's all in service of dull action sequences bookended by twists that are either trite or incredibly stupid.

A strong early contender for the worst thing I'll see in theaters this year, and I assure all, I have seen some sorry movies up to this point.

So the initial reviews don't sound super great, but my mom's ecstatic about it from the trailer, so I don't want to spoil that.

Besides, I haven't watched a Matthew Vaughn movie in ages, so maybe the nitpicks won't be as prevalent in the first viewing.

I gotta say, seeing the poster saying "From the twisted mind of Matthew Vaughn" has completely sapped all energy I had for this. That kind of Creator Worship from promo materials always makes me wary.

If one sentence on the poster was enough to turn you completely off the entire movie, then you couldn't have been all that into it to begin with.

Is this movie worth watching even if it has most of the bad reviews? Because I was looking forward to watching it.

Speaking as someone who just got out of it a few minutes ago?

Yeah.

It probably helped that I haven't seen Vaughn's movies in a while but I went to see it today with family and ye gods, was I sitting on pins and needles!

The action actually made me wince in hardcore it would get (like you'd think "ooh chihuahua!") and there are many twists, but I was still on board.

And "Electric Energy" is a legit bop.

Point is, I get that reviews can be good, but ultimately, it's your eyeballs, so if you really want to watch it like I did, then go and form your own opinion.

(And stick around for the credits!)

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Feb 3rd 2024 at 3:55:44 PM

dang this film bombed hard

Remember that Apple isn’t planning to make its money back from the theatrical run though.

I just came back from it and I had a blast.

I'm still excited to see it. I'm still not entirely sure what to expect for one thing. I like the cast and I like Matthew Vaughn as well. Also again, excited to see Dua Lipa have a major role too.

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Feb 3rd 2024 at 7:07:21 AM

Just keep in mind it can be AGGRESSIVELY goofy and over the top, but that it’s kind of the charm of the movie.

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Feb 3rd 2024 at 10:21:13 AM

I liked it better than his Kingsman stuff, unexpectedly. My only gripe is that they could've used Cavill more.

Image pickin thread is open:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=17070979870.25895200&page=1#5

Also, do we think this is set in the Kingsman universe or was that just a reference?

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Feb 4th 2024 at 9:09:40 AM

Reposted from the Box Office thread:

Saw Argylle and thought it was…interesting to say the least. It was a trip. Haha.

Yeah I can see why this isn't doing well financially. What the movie's truly about is not what was sold. Word clearly got out about that.

I think also if they'd set the earlier on too, it also would've helped as well.

Be interesting to see what the hold is this weekend too.

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Feb 10th 2024 at 9:19:22 AM

So turns out that that first description Was on the money. It really is about an amnesiac spy recounting their last missions in fiction form and not a full on stranger than fiction thing where she's accidentally making it happen. Sadly the later thing was actual much more interesting sounding.

I think that on one hand, the reviews I've seen are in the money. The characters aren't deep or particularly engaging. The plot moves quickly and twists often, and coupled with the goofy action scenes, it's all light, fluffy and unengaging.

It's not Kingsman. On the other hand, it's not trying to be, that light and fluff is all it's trying for. The biggest criticism is that early it on it has a gimmick of her overlaying Cavill onto the real sky and seeing him in the mirror to getting adviceshould have been used more it climaxes with him saying she didn't him anymore but she'd barely used him to start with so...?

It did also feel that should have been more contrast between how things worked in her books to the reality but obviously the nature of one of the twists precludes that from being a thing beyond Henry Cavil done up is hotter than a slobbified Sam Rockwell.

So I'm guessing that when Elly was Rachel/Argylle, she was also into women? That means she still danced with LaGrange like that.

Yeah. It sucks that that original description was released prior because it did give me a sense of what the movie was actually about going in—and yeah, that would've been the more interesting movie too. This movie had the same pacing problems that both Money Train and Don't Worry Darling had—though not as bad as those two movies did however. I thought maybe before she lost her memory, either Elly's real father was the real Argylle—Henry Cavill in old man makeup—or she worked with a far less attractive man who was the real Argylle—which would again be him in heavy makeup (haha).

I give both the Kingsman sequel and prequel credit that they go so hard with their concepts, they're appreciated regardless of whatever misses they got—and neither one is Kick-Ass 2 at least. While this definitely isn't Kick-Ass 2 either—and just thinking of that movie makes me mad, it's inconsistent in the way it’s made and not in a way that I can overlook.

The movie's at least worth a Rental. It's not one I'd say that people have to skip.

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Feb 12th 2024 at 10:15:18 AM

My mother and I watched this movie a couple weeks ago and we both enjoyed it. The only things we knew about the premise was that it was about an espionage/spy thriller writer suffering from writer's block getting caught up in real-world spy antics thanks to her novels predicting actual events. I think I got more out of the movie this way than if I had known going in about Elly being an actual spy with amnesia. Can't say for sure though, for obvious reasons.

That said, while I did have fun with it, I do understand why Argylle is getting ragged on. It's moments of action cheese get stretched a bit too far in places and the number of reveals and plot twists will certainly test some people's patience. And I have to agree with the criticisms about the ending being too long; I wasn't feeling the run time until a specific point during the film's climax. (Don't remember exactly when, think it might've been during the hallway shoot out between the mooks and Elly/Rachel and Aiden.)

I will say, my mom and I got a kick out of scene where Elly edits her next book. We both have literary aspirations, so we had a good chuckle about Elly's attempts to give her next book a satisfying ending. I liked the image of everything but Agent Argylle fading into the computer document Elly's working then the words falling down behind him. It's a decent visual representation of what it's like when you want to write but can't find the words no matter how hard you try.

Edited by Oratel on Mar 7th 2024 at 4:09:26 AM

I did like the movie warts and all and I hope it gets reevaluated and better liked in the future.

Be interesting to see how it plays on a rewatch now I saw it once and thus have seen what it was trying to do off the bat.

How likely is it this film will get a So Bad, It's Good reputation?

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Mar 12th 2024 at 11:30:35 AM

I don't really think it will. It's forgettably competent with a gimmick that wears out its welcome but isn't interesting past realizing that they paid $200 million for the gimmick.

This movie was hilarious and I don't know why people are so hard on it.

My Review:

https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2024/03/argylle-2024-review.html

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Mar 13th 2024 at 9:34:49 AM

Sorry for the bump (is that the right term?) but thought this video by Amanda the Jedi was interesting. It gives a plot synopsis/small review of the film, then briefly goes through the tie-in book, and then explores the various weird things surrounding the film, like the untrue rumours that Taylor Swift wrote the tie-in book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RIDa3XsqTk

I haven't seen this film, but weirdly, despite this video concluding that both the film and the book are, at best, So OK, It's Average, it has made me want to check them out.

Edited by king15 on Apr 3rd 2024 at 11:28:23 AM