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Argylle film review: Covert actioner gets overtly annoying

Matthew Vaughn assembles an all-star cast for a spy movie sugar-rush crammed with gratingly overblown hi-jinks

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Argylle film review: Covert actioner gets overtly annoying

Granting itself a licence to be absurd, the latest slice of mischievous mayhem from Kingsman helmer Matthew Vaughn is a tongue-in-cheek espionage actioner, the first in a planned trilogy. Contrary to what some of the Henry Cavill-fronted marketing would have you believe, the lead here is Bryce Dallas Howard; she plays mild-mannered Elly Conway, author of a popular spy series featuring the suave, velvet-sporting Argylle (Cavill in cad mode, his hair styled into an alarming, Simon Cowell-esque flattop).

Elly teams up with Sam Rockwell’s far less dapper real-world spy Aidan, who believes that she has stumbled onto a conspiracy in her latest novel and needs her help to put the final pieces together. In their efforts, the pair are pitted against a devious group of corrupt spies, led by Bryan Cranston’s Ritter. Dua Lipa, Catherine O’Hara, Samuel L Jackson and John Cena provide the support.

There’s nothing more annoying than a film that thinks it’s clever but whose endless reliance on other people’s ideas reveals it to be anything but. Argylle takes an Austin Powers-like approach to its Bond emulation, while also owing sizeable debts to superior films like SpyThe Lost CityThe Long Kiss Goodnight, and more.

Things switch rapidly from novel to patience-stretching, with the tediously tricksy antics eventually clocking in at well over two hours. Vaughn fans will lap up the OTT action and knowing air but, unlike his earlier Kick-Ass, Argylle is sorely lacking real wit or edge. There’s not a lot that stands out here, save a bonkers gun battle featuring love hearts and clouds of rainbow-coloured smoke that somehow manages to make you cringe during the carnage.

Argylle is in cinemas from Friday 2 February.

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