Argylle

 

  After a promising start, this new action adventure, from director Matthew Vaughn, descends into a completely silly mess.

   The premise is interesting enough. An author creates a hero spy named Argylle and writes a series of books about his adventures. As it turns out, the plot of her latest book has consequences in the real world and actual spies come after her. Bryce Dallas Howard plays Ellie Conway, the author and cat lover whose plot points appear to predict what will happen in the future.  It's a ridiculous premise that the screenwriter, Jason Fuchs actually finds a way to justify.

    Sam Rockwell plays Aidan, a "good" spy tasked protecting Ellie from the bad guys while trying to figure out what happens next in the book. Mr. Rockwell and Ms. Howard have good chemistry and make a fine entry into the stereotypical spy comedy genre. But wait...there's a twist or rather quite a few of them.

    Co-starring are Bryan Cranston, Catharine O'Hara, Henry Cavill, John Cena, Samuel L. Jackson, Ariana DeBose, and Sofia Boutella. Dua Lipa has a very small role as well which amounts to not much more than eye candy. And I can't forget Chip, as Alfie the cat, who has more screen time than many of the human actors.

    The film runs much too long and could have been easily cut by twenty minutes, if not for the overload of exposition force fed on the audience. Mr. Vaughn's action sequences go from good to absurd by the third act which by that time any credibility in the story is completely gone.

     It's a fun (for a while) film if you don't think too much and just let the appealing cast and CGI effects wash over you but it does overstay its welcome, even adding a mid credit scene and the promise of sequels to come.