The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Warner Bros. | Release Date: August 14, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
20
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekAug 17, 2015
Though it's made with lots of modern tricks and technology, it's old-fashioned in the best sense, and not just because it's set in the Sixties. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenyAug 10, 2015
If you have a fondness for the genre and a particular love of '60s pop, The Man From UNCLE is the summer's big fizzy drink, all bubbles, and while it may be gone the moment you walk out of the theater, the smile it puts on your face will likely linger. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinAug 11, 2015
It succeeds admirably on its own terms – more so, I think, than his two Sherlock Holmes films – and while it never really transcends pastiche, its ambitions don’t lie in that direction. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonDave CalhounAug 11, 2015
U.N.C.L.E. has enough style and smarts to make it an amusingly louche summer movie: a cultivated mix of action and wit, suits and cities, that feels refreshingly analogue in a digital world. Read full review
78
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeAug 10, 2015
This new Man from U.N.C.L.E. would be an instant masterpiece if it were consistently as good as its best parts, but even as a hit-and-miss affair, it’s a bracing bit of late-summer fun for anyone who has given up the notion of a major studio offering anything truly revelatory until at least October. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 17, 2015
A celebration of a time when secret agents dressed impeccably, bantered with style, and had exceptionally cool toys. That the movie is almost instantly forgettable is part of the pleasure. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanAug 17, 2015
Director Guy Ritchie, who wasn’t born when the TV show debuted in 1964, cleverly captures the elements that made it a success. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 14, 2015
It has taken Warner Brothers ten years to get this property a new life and, thankfully, the results in no way resemble those of its Cold War TV compatriot. Or, to put it another way, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) is good fun, which "The Avengers" (1998) wasn't. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonAug 13, 2015
What really sets The Man From U.N.C.L.E. apart is its refusal to pander to short attention spans. This is a movie whose charm sneaks up on you, like a spy in the night. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerAug 12, 2015
While The Man From U.N.C.L.E. probably isn’t any less of a caricature of its period than "Sherlock Holmes," it carries its fakeness with more snap in its step. The imaginary intrigue it generates is fleeting, but often beautiful. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 10, 2015
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. plays a like a lower key, vintage edition of a “Mission: Impossible” movie. It’s a good movie with a great look. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 14, 2015
It turns out to be absolutely delightful. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Nathalie AtkinsonAug 13, 2015
The spectacular Italian locations, jazzy score and vehicular action finally go somewhere in the third act, when Ritchie riffs a few stylistic conventions of the era. Mesmerizing and clever, but more style than substance. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 13, 2015
A lot of energy and effort has gone into this endeavor, and I can't say some of it's not fun. But more of it, alas, is just tedious. Say uncle already. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 13, 2015
Vikander, the sexbot in "Ex Machina," is having a hell of a year. And you can see why. Gaby isn't much of a part, but Vikander makes her a live wire. Her impromptu dance with Kuryakin that ends in a wrestling match is, well, something to see. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaAug 12, 2015
Temperamentally, Guy Ritchie aligns more with the lithe, James Bond-like Solo: detached, above-it-all, eternally cool under pressure. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneAug 17, 2015
The director of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is Guy Ritchie, and there are hints, in the Berlin scenes, that he is tempted by the murkier option. Before long, however, as befits the maker of “Snatch” and “RocknRolla,” he drops the shadowy chic, decamps to Rome, and gets down to silliness. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 13, 2015
It almost works. Actually, it does work, hitting the requisite number of hip notes. It just doesn’t dazzle, and that’s kind of a surprise. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 13, 2015
Mr. Ritchie tends to flaunt his wares like a store clerk, fawning over the clothes, chairs and cars, and his usual rabbity pace slows to a tortoiselike crawl whenever the actors deliver a lot of words, which gratefully isn’t often. His talent, as he proves repeatedly, is making bodies and cars crash through space. Read full review
60
CineVueJoe WalshAug 13, 2015
It's a good-looking film and the three leads hold our attention, yet the lacklustre plotting and lack of narrative drive undercut The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s overall charm. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'HaraAug 11, 2015
Cavill and Hammer are made for each other, but the film can’t always find the pyrotechnics to match their chemistry. Read full review
60
Total FilmJosh WinningAug 11, 2015
While it lacks a memorable villain, and the central pairing fizzes but never sparks, the film gets by on its vintage charm and a third act upswing. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonAug 10, 2015
The film is nothing but a sensuous rush of snappy period costumes, elegant beauties, dapper men, kinetic action and so-so quips, and because Ritchie seems even less concerned with story than usual, that blinkered approach very nearly works. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 10, 2015
Cavill and Hammer have each toplined major tentpoles before, so it’s something of a mystery why neither makes much of an impression here, but there’s a curious vacuum at the center of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. that almost certainly owes to its casting. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 13, 2015
Stylish to a fault and straying from the source, Guy Ritchie's The Man From U.N.C.L.E. revives a 1960s television hit for the short attention spans of today's youth-skewing movie audience. Read full review
58
The PlaylistMichael ArbeiterAug 11, 2015
Ritchie manages a promising first act. But at the whim of the action movie formula, and ostensibly nothing else, priorities shift as the story carries forward. When we’re asked later on to attend to escalating stakes and a dimming tone, we’re simply left wondering what happened to all the fun. Read full review
50
USA TodayBrian TruittAug 13, 2015
While Mission: Impossible has found a popular way to reimagine an old show for modern times, Man is immersed in all things retro — from the ginchy fashion to a jazzy score — but for an action adventure, it’s a mostly tedious affair with fleeting moments of cool. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 13, 2015
Ritchie is a director with no instinct for the audience, and he can’t hold things together for an entire film. He seems at a loss, from moment to moment, as to what he should emphasize. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyAug 11, 2015
The period spy thriller The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is only intermittently engaging and amusing, and those portions of the movie that succeed are also frustrating. Because they’re cushioned by enervated, conceptually befuddled, and sometimes outright indifferent stuff. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 11, 2015
It’s not so much bad as dull and ill-conceived. It doesn’t so much end as sputter out. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 10, 2015
How is that Vikander, who played the robot in the recent (and worthwhile) "Ex Machina," was twice as lively and five times as human in that picture than in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.? Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAug 10, 2015
It's got a few things going for it and it's not unenjoyable to sit through, but, at the same time, the tone and creative register never feel confident and settled. It's not bad but not quite good enough either. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianJeff BakerAug 13, 2015
Looks great, sounds great -- what's the problem? Everything else. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyAug 11, 2015
The early-’60s styles are chic, the Euro locales are swank, and the music cues (including a nod to Ennio Morricone’s Once Upon a Time in the West score) are fantastic. Too bad the plot and the lead performances are so lifeless. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenAug 13, 2015
Being a mildly pleasant, passingly amusing light entertainment isn't exactly saving the world, yet the film crosses its wires to blow up even that modest assignment. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 10, 2015
There’s some nice early-60s period production design and the whole thing moves along smoothly, if unhurriedly. But it never delivers anything like the punch of Tom Cruise’s M:I adventures, nor the wit and distinctiveness of 007. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithAug 12, 2015
Armie Hammer has given several of the worst performances in recent years — see, or rather don’t, “Mirror Mirror” and “J. Edgar.” The big surprise in The Man from U.N.C.L.E is that Henry Cavill is even worse. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiAug 12, 2015
The chemistry between the leads is nonexistent. Cavill unsuccessfully tries to channel Cary Grant, while Hammer’s Kuryakin has so much inner conflict, it becomes a joke that isn’t funny. Read full review
25
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 13, 2015
The threat that this mess of a movie might be followed by a sequel is enough to make anyone cry uncle. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 13, 2015
It’s slow, lethargic, utterly lacking in charm and undeserving of the Cold War setting that is its best trait. Read full review
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