alexeberlin
New in Town
- Messages
- 43
- Location
- UK
If it is of any corroborative value I loved it, and saw it again this morning with 6 uncle fans, 5 of whom loved it. The audience in general seemed to respond well.
They had vintage vehicles in the East Berlin sequences, and I think in Italy as well. Yes, got to have that action sequence for the modern viewer (though if the original series had had a bigger budget, they could have had more such scenes too). But what I appreciated was that, at the climax, Solo and Illya defeated Victoria Vinciguerra, not just by brawn or better technology, but by outsmarting her.I liked it very much also. One of the few highly stylized films where I think all that super '60s gloss worked beautifully because it wasn't just great looking stuff, it was style the way it was done in the films of the time ... but tuned up for a modern budget and look.
SLIGHT SPOILER (for those with a glass "spoiler jaw") ...
Other than a sense that a bit of the beginning was about getting used to the accents, the only thing that put me off was the off road vehicle chase with two anachronistic vehicles, a sort of super dune buggy and a (vastly less problematic) Land Rover Defender slightly modified to vaguely resemble the Series version. It's unfortunate only in that I have no doubt that something equally good could have been done with vintage vehicles or more era appropriate custom vehicles. Scenes like this are often handed off to a second unit director but I can hardly imagine that the equipment wasn't vetted by all before they shot it.
Yeah, I missed those trappings too. But it had the style, the dialogue, the energy and trickiness of the best episodes. If we get a sequel, perhaps we'll have HQ, the badges, and the rest. Remember that it took two movies to get Star Trek off the ground as a top-notch series (and two pilots in the first place on TV). U.N.C.L.E., like ST, might be one of those formats that is hard to get right at the starting gate.Saw it last week... While I liked the various twists from the original and thought the cast was pretty good I never bought into it. I kept waiting for the hidden headquarters, triangular I.D.'s, funky phone rings and all the other cool gear that made UNCLE.... UNCLE!!!! I also saw it in a rundown theatre with no DD sound at all. Still I've paid more'n seen worse.
Worf
Sequel? The film's decidedly a flop, not close to making back its production cost (domestically) after nearly a month. I'd say its chances of getting a sequel are pretty slim.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=uncle.htm
BTW, I'm one of those original Star Trek fans who wrote a letter to NBC in 1968 to get another season.
I did it again later - to ABC about My So-Called Life in 1995 - but it didn't work that time!
Yes, she's great in Homeland... but the series itself has been extremely uneven - sometimes amazingly great, sometimes seriously disappointing.
I think an even better series starring a former teen-dramedy star as a spy is The Americans on FX, where Keri Russell's giving a fierce performance as an "ordinary" 1980s Washington mom who's actually a Soviet sleeper agent. A real contender for the best drama series going, it has continuously improved each season as its story has deepened. It's whole "the big lies you tell as an undercover operative aren't so different from the little lies you tell in a marriage" original concept is brilliant. And in later seasons, as their teenage daughter who can't put her finger on what's really going on with her parents - even as they're being pressured by their handlers to recruit her to the cause - is a plot that's pushed the show into something really special. Honestly, I can't recommend The Americans enough.
And re Mandy Patinkin, I always liked him, ever since he first showed up in Ragtime. Yeah, he's a THEATUH ACTAW who sometimes goes too big, but he's very solid. Homeland wouldn't have made it this far without Saul as a foil for Carrie.
Apparently the new movie is inspiring fan fiction just as the old series did. Here's a neat and respectful article about the original fandom, and the new: http://www.dailydot.com/geek/man-from-uncle-fandom-slash-history/?tu=gav