The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - C

Rated PG-13, 116 minutes

The dull new Guy Ritchie-directed movie "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," a remake of the 1960's TV series of the same name, plays on the cinematic obsession with spies; this junior-league James Bond-esque effort is modestly entertaining, but also blandly overstylized and hurt by a couple of crucial miscastings. Set against the backdrop of the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, the movie centers on CIA agent Solo (latest Superman Henry Cavill) and KGB agent Kuryakin ("The Social Network's" Armie Hammer). Forced to put aside longstanding hostilities, the two team up on a joint mission to stop a mysterious international criminal organization, which is bent on destabilizing the fragile balance of power through the proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology. Directed by Ritchie ("Snatch") and co-written by Ritchie and Lionel Wigram, "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." is a decent but mediocre effort at updating a classic TV series that most under the age of 40 probably won't remember much about. Ritchie did this thing better with the "Sherlock Holmes" makeover, and while those films had a similar style, it benefited from the more interesting Robert Downey Jr. In "U.N.C.L.E.," the makeover is a mixed bag, with the premise of having an American and Russian spy much less novel than it was in the 1960's at the height of the Cold War, here it's simply a plot contrivance given little explanation, and the casting much less effective. The handsome Cavill is a serviceable Solo, though Hammer is miscast as Kuryakin, and he's not a strong enough actor to pull off a believable Russian accent; as well, the film's femme fatale villain is played by the lovely but much too-young Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki, in over her head for this. Ritchie adds heavy, often annoying doses of style (is there a reason certain scenes have to be told twice just to withhold information from the audience - for this type of thing we should be in on it) and handles the action well, but the plotting is muddled and the characters aren't shaded well at all, and for all the time spent trying to stop the bad guys, the climax is very, very brief and anti-climactic, in that if you blink you might miss it. Rounding out the cast of "U.N.C.L.E" is Alicia Viklander (a terribly written role), Jared Harris and Hugh Grant as the spies boss Alexander Waverly, whose role is considerably minimized and changed somewhat from the TV series. Featuring a few fun moments and spry energy that never really develops into anything substantial, the stylish but toothless "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." is an lackluster, weaker spy effort that doesn't do the classic TV series justice. Good for a few minutes, you're better off seeing the new "Mission: Impossible" effort, who does this thing much better.