Open Channel D: The Man From UNCLE Affair

by Katherine Cosumano Entertainment/Bustle If there were any doubts going into The Man From U.N.C.L.E. as to whether the studio powers that be planned for a sequel, they've likely been dispelled with the film's release. Without giving much of anything away, Alicia Vikander, Armie Hammer, and Henry Cavill will undoubtedly return as a new super spy group codenamed U.N.C.L.E. At the end of the film (spoilers ahead!) Waverly (Hugh Grant), the British secret service agent who is also Vikander's handler, declares that the group, having successfully completed their mission to disarm a nuclear device in the hands of Italian neo-Nazis, has but an hour to pack their bags and head to Istanbul for their next mission. So it's easy to imagine that continuing in a follow-up — but otherwise, what will happen in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. 2 ? At the end of the movie, Wavery tells the group that they have a new codename, and "it's quite a good one — U.N.C.L.E." The new f...

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  is a “Thank You” to Guy Ritchie from Warner Bros. Much like the studio rewarded Zack Synder for the films  300  and  Watchmen  with allowing him to do his dream project Sucker Punch , Warner Bros. is thanking Ritchie for the success of the two  Sherlock Holmes  movies he did for the studio. It has been a struggle to get the television property to the big screen; casting leads would come and go (George Clooney among others) as would filmmakers (Steven Soderbergh was the closest until he left over budget and casting concerns). But it is Ritchie and collaborator Lionel Wigram who have cracked the puzzle by creating an origin story for the Cold War-era TV series, which ran for four seasons on NBC (1964-1968) and presented a scenario where an American agent and a Russian agent cooperated in pursuit of justice under the pretense of an international organization. The show itself was inspired by the recently launched James...

Review by Graham Mummery Sevenoaks, Kent England product rating stars   Memories of Sixties Summers October 31, 2015 The TV programme The Man from UNCLE was one of the first proper "cult TV" programmes in the nineteen sixties. An action-adventure-spy series it also captured the imagination of children with toy guns, cars and gadgets in the same way the James Bond films did then. It was fortunate in its three leading actors Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, who made their names through it, and the veteran actor Leo G Carroll who is perhaps best remembered for it. There were also stylish scripts with a touch of humour which the leading actors carried off with verve. In it's heyday like James Bond, UNCLE helped define sixties cool, though the series later went into a sharp decline after TV executives made the producers over emphasise the comedy that appeared in the scripts. All of this is mentioned by Dagomir Marquezi in his text. He looks at the origins of the...

Fans of the original TV show “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” will recall exactly what it was that made it work so well. It was a fun and entertaining spy show that was amusingly campy, with charming performances from Robert Vaughn and David McCallum. Fast forward 50 years later and it becomes rather surprising that no one had put together a feature film based on the show this entire time. After all, most of the other major spy shows of the period got their big screen treatment, from the upper end of the scale with the “Mission: Impossible” franchise to the lesser adaptations that included “The Avengers” and “I, Spy,” so why not take a chance with the one that is famous for starting the spy trend of the ‘60s in the first place? At long last, under the direction of  Guy Ritchie  (“Snatch,” “Sherlock Holmes”), fans finally get to see Napoleon and Illya have their own big screen adventure, but was the wait truly worth it, or is it just another ‘60s adaptation that’s best forgotten? ...

By Tom Russo  GLOBE CORRESPONDENT   NOVEMBER 14, 2015 The best parts of  “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”  (2015) are over so quickly, you’ll want to watch on DVD so that you can give them an extra look. That’s not a knock against Guy Ritchie’s feature version of the old TV espionage favorite. It’s just that for all the energy poured into recapturing and heightening the ’60s cool of secret agents Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer), their coolest moments come when their interplay takes a backseat to freneticism. The movie boasts a handful of shootout and chase sequences in which perspectives spontaneously zoom in and out, images slide together and fragment into a split-screen array, and the soundtrack percussively thrums like “Birdman” on fast-forward. Typically when we see action this hyper-edited, the filmmakers are trying to mask stodgy footage with a sense of manufactured urgency, never mind how visually unintelligible the fin...

The Man from U.N.C.L.E (Blu-ray/DVD combo) Warner Bros. 2 stars (out of five) This retake on the famous 1960s’ TV show about a pair of mismatched American and Russian CIA/KGB agents is disappointingly dull. Though the movie is high on production values — exotic locations, vintage cars and stylish fashions from that era — the script is predictable and there isn’t a character in it worth caring about. Henry Cavill (as Napoleon Solo) and Armie Hammer (as Illya Kuryakin) might be chiseled hunks, but they don’t have the chemistry and charm of the TV show’s stars, Robert Vaughn and David McCallum. Indeed, the movie’s attempted humour is feeble. These hostile adversaries are teamed by their respective countries to stop a criminal group intent on acquiring a nuclear weapon that would threaten the U.S. and Soviet Union. Director Guy Ritchie trots out the obligatory punch-ups, car chases, boat chases, gunfights with the bad guys etc (done much better by the James Bond franchi...

Open Channel D reached the top in two differents best sellers lists in Kindle Amazon Australia. One is the Television History & Criticism: Second list is Movie & Video History & Criticism:  Our many thanks to Open Channel D Australian readers. Much more about UNCLE: Amazon.com -  http://goo.gl/OD1XKW Amazon Australia -  http://goo.gl/ODQYPY Amazon Brazil -  http://goo.gl/qYPYg6 Amazon Canada -  http://goo.gl/XrC6gc Amazon France -  http://goo.gl/IGxkLq Amazon Germany -  http://goo.gl/Wtz6WB Amazon India -  http://goo.gl/vtNMYo Amazon Italy -  http://goo.gl/gPOn6X Amazon Japan -  http://goo.gl/Cwqw1s Amazon Mexico -  http://goo.gl/xY6ANr Amazon Netherlands -  http://goo.gl/y1t4KO Amazon Spain -  http://goo.gl/ph9s0Z Amazon UK -  http://goo.gl/RDkUxB

TOP 10 MOST PIRATED MOVIES OF THE WEEK – 11/02/15 BY  ERNESTO   ON  NOVEMBER 2, 2015 C:  7 STATS The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again. 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Inside Out.' 'Everest' completes the top three. This week we have two newcomers and one returnee in our chart. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is the most downloaded movie. The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise. Read more clicking here.