A reclusive author who writes espionage novels about a secret agent and a global spy syndicate realizes the plot of the new book she’s writing starts to mirror real-world events, in real time.

Matthew Vaughn is back with another spy action thriller, but if you thought this was going to be the refreshing take on the genre that the first ‘Kingsman’ movie was you will be sadly disappointed as this is frankly, an absolute mess of a movie. ‘Argylle’ tells the story of the author of a successful series of spy novels, who finds herself caught up in real life espionage when she realises her new book is starting to mirror real life events. It’s an intriguing setup and certainly something a bit different, but unfortunately it just never really works – not helped by the poor production values, crap CGI and slapstick action sequences.

Bryce Dallas Howard leads the cast as Elly Conway, a reclusive author who spends most of her time with her cat Alfie (who, while undoubtedly cute, is mostly superfluous to the plot besides adding in a random and forced dose of quirkiness). On a train journey to visit her parents, she is saved by an actual spy from a series of assassins who have been tasked with killing her due to her novels starting to ‘actually’ predict the future. This sets off a chain of events where Elly is drawn into an underworld of secretive and shady organisations, with nefarious motives that are never really clear. From a world building perspective, ‘John Wick’ this ain’t. In the ‘real’ world we’re following Elly and her spy rescuer Aidan (Sam Rockwell), while she imagines herself as the title character of her books, Aubrey Argylle (Henry Cavill) at particular moments – I’m assuming to provide more excuses to get Cavill (and John Cena, who also appears in the ‘fictional’ sequences) on screen more. You can add those two to the impressive cast list of performers who either don’t get enough to do, or simply chew the scenery beyond any point of enjoyment.

What follows is a series of twists and double crosses as Elly attempts to find out the truth, all built around a series of unnecessarily silly action sequences. The plotting doesn’t really make sense, even for a genre set up to be far fetched, and it runs on far too long past the two hour mark when it has most definitely outstayed its welcome. I think there possibly is a good idea buried within ‘Argylle’, but Vaughn doesn’t work out how to find it and turn it into a coherent, entertaining movie, and unfortunately this is a shoddy, cheap looking (despite costing $200m to make!) and tacky spy thriller that you’d do well to avoid.

Rating: 2/5

Directed By: Matthew Vaughn

Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Henry Cavill, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Sofia Boutella, Dua Lipa, John Cena, Ariana DeBose, Richard E. Grant and Samuel L. Jackson

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt15009428/