Argylle
Universal Pictures | Release Date: February 2, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
35
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 56 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
29
Negative:
21
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 5, 2024
What has gone wrong in director Matthew Vaughn’s process that he can offer up an awful mess like “Argylle” and just hope that nobody will notice? He must notice. Read full review
25
The Film StageConor O'DonnellFeb 2, 2024
It takes a very specific kind of brain trust to craft something as uniquely baffling as Argylle. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 2, 2024
I didn’t laugh once and the movie’s stylized and satirical tone defused any connection I might have felt for the characters. Perhaps if the proceedings hadn’t dragged on well past the two-hour mark, it wouldn’t have seemed like such a chore to sit through. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshFeb 2, 2024
Argylle has bone-deep structural issues on a fundamental level, but it is also a failure of directorial execution from top to bottom, resulting in what has to be one of the most expensive worst movies ever made. It’s honestly fascinating — something that should be studied in a lab. Read full review
20
ABC NewsPeter TraversFeb 2, 2024
Forget the rumor that Taylor Swift wrote the books this sad excuse for a romcom is based on. Bryce Dallas Howard is wasted as a cat lady who writes thrillers—Henry Cavill and Sam Rockwell play spies—but this whole dull, plodding, cartoonish mess lands with a thud. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithFeb 1, 2024
The screenwriter starts to seem like a sweaty basement-of-the-coffee-house magician who keeps sawing ladies in half long past the point of diminishing returns. Read full review
25
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiFeb 1, 2024
Argyle is a pretty pattern. “Argylle,” meanwhile, is the latest example of a pretty irritating pattern from director Matthew Vaughn. Read full review
0
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonFeb 1, 2024
Argylle is a cynical cash grab that has the audacity to use that “new” Beatles song, “Now and Then” (itself a cynical cash grab pieced together with far more skill than this movie) as the basis for its score and the “love theme” for Aidan and Elly. Read full review
38
The Associated PressJake CoyleFeb 1, 2024
Criss-crossing patterns of ridiculousness and self-satisfaction run through “Argylle,” a tiresome meta movie that puts an awful lot of zest into an awfully empty high-concept story. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 1, 2024
It’s lousy, and a frantic bore, squandering its on-screen talent and making bland visual hash of its preening, recreational slaughter. Read full review
20
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonFeb 1, 2024
It is ostensibly a tribute to spy movies of an earlier age, not clever enough to be a spoof and certainly not satire. But a homage shows affection for, understanding of and respect toward the thing it is honoring. Argylle feels pasted together by a robot manipulating some kind of spy Magnetic Poetry. Read full review
25
Washington PostTy BurrJan 31, 2024
When Vaughn is cooking, his films can be stylish, self-satisfied junk food. “Argylle” leaves the style out of the equation — it’s filmmaking as processed interstate fare, high in calories, low in fiber, tasty until you’ve had enough of it and then you feel sick. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 31, 2024
Brawls and epic shoot-outs break out, droll action heroes and venemous villains smirk and sneer, bodies fly about and the body count soars in a light thriller that begins with great promise and stumbles into ponderous “streaming” pacing before the struggle to rally at the finale arrives. Read full review
20
Rolling StoneDavid FearJan 31, 2024
There’s a deadening feeling you get watching all of this, as if Argylle’s real revelation is: We’ve cracked the code on how to take a handful of your favorite actors and a surefire ha-ha-bang-bang storyline and leech every single thing out that you usually like about these kinds of things. Read full review
14
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJan 31, 2024
One of the most chaotically stupid action movies to torture audiences in ages. Read full review
20
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeJan 31, 2024
Director Matthew Vaughn, fresh off the success of his irritating Kingsman franchise, makes Argylle utterly weightless, both literally (the stuntwork all seems to be taking place in zero gravity) and figuratively (the barely-there characters never register). Read full review
25
Slant MagazineJake ColeJan 31, 2024
And the more each new twist is revealed and summarily falls flat, the faster the next one is slotted into place to get ahead of the story’s anticlimax, leading to a spiral in which the plot becomes even more meaningless. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsJan 31, 2024
It’s a shame. Argylle had the potential to be a whissmart parody. It unfortunately just seems to get tired of being the butt of the joke before it can deliver the punchline. But in attempting to avoid becoming a gag—laboring to connect this film with the Kingsman franchise—Vaughn imbues his film with anonymity, making it merely forgettable. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinJan 31, 2024
Sure, it’s entirely possible that the film will find a constituency who will love its mirthless, shouty performances, its tortured random plot twists and its appallingly shonky-looking CGI. But there is also a distinct possibility audiences will turn up their noses at this like it’s a fresh litter box deposit. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJan 31, 2024
The action is slapstick-driven, yet the set-pieces are all so transparently bogus – with fourth-rate CGI and actors’ digital doubles flopping about the place like haunted marionettes – that they play as insulting rather than outrageous. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 31, 2024
This could theoretically be a fun movie, but it is all so self-conscious and self-admiring, with key action sequences rendered null and void by being played on two levels, the imaginary and the real, so cancelling each other out. Read full review
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