- The film currently holds a 37% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
- It features a star-studded cast including Bryce Dallas Howard, Dua Lipa, Henry Cavill, and Samuel L. Jackson
- The movie, based on a novel of the same name, is set for release on February 2
Matthew Vaughn’s highly-anticipated big budget film Argylle – designed to kickstart a blockbuster new spy series – has been savaged by film critics, with one branding it one of the ‘worst movies ever made’.
The movie, which has a star-studded cast, including Bryce Dallas Howard, Dua Lipa, Henry Cavill, and Samuel L. Jackson, and cost Apple Original Films an eye-watering $200M, has been universally panned in reviews released on Wednesday.
It’s based on a recently published book of the same name, and follows the introverted spy novelist called Elly Conway (played by Howard) who is drawn into the real world of espionage when the plots of her books get a little too close to the activities of a sinister underground syndicate.
The film was dubbed ‘one of the most expensive worst movies ever made’ by Katie Walsh from Tribune News Service, and currently holds a 37% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
‘One of the most chaotically stupid action movies to torture audiences in ages,’ Barry Hertz from Globe and Mail said of the film.
‘Its comic touch almost as heavy-handed as its slow-motion-drenched action is dull, it seems primarily designed to answer the question, “How many movie stars can one fiasco squander?”’ Nick Schager of The Daily Beast asked.
‘A talented cast trapped in an endless story with a fake cat,’ Matt Singer from ScreenCrush quipped.
David Fear from Rolling Stone kept his review simple and to the point, writing, ‘Argylle is a bad movie. A very, very bad movie.’
‘It all starts to feel like one of those very expensive, very elaborate commercials for a pseudo-luxury product you don’t want to buy — a perfume perhaps, or some car,’ wrote Leslie Felperin from the Hollywood Reporter.
Meanwhile Carla Hay from Culture Mix called the movie, ‘An incoherent, bloated mess filled with stupid plot twists, awful dialogue, and a gimmicky cat that looks fake for most of the movie. Henry Cavill is not the main star. Argylle is mostly Sam Rockwell acting smug and Bryce Dallas Howard acting terrified.’
Meanwhile Bryce’s performance was called ‘awful’ by The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw.
‘Through some terrible directing anti-alchemy, he has elicited an awful lead performance here from Bryce Dallas Howard as spy novelist Elly Conway, whose creations uncannily mirror real life.’
‘She looks waxy, inert and uncomfortable; it’s as if she is wearing cut-glass contact lenses, with a torpid, unfocused quality which the script’s big twist does not explain or excuse,’ he wrote.
However some of the critics praised Bryce’s performance as the film’s saving grace. ‘Howard tries her best to keep things lively, but she’s hampered by dull characterization,’ notes Richard Lawson from Vanity Fair.
He adds: ‘Argylle strains desperately hard to be kicky and twisty and raucous but mostly feels like a chore, a slog through painful gags and canned charisma.’
‘There is far too much CGI. It goes on for half an hour longer than even the most tolerant Vaughn fan will allow. And yet. Howard is so irrepressibly charming that Argylle proves hard to wholly resist,’ Donald Clarke from the Irish Times wrote.
Kevin Maher from the Times took issue with the film’s simple approach to humor.
‘It’s a testament to the low-grade lethargy that informs so much of the writing here that his character template never evolved further than “Henry Cavill + wacky haircut = hilarity,”‘ he wrote.
‘Everywhere you look, there are details that need to be added, plot holes that need to be filled, and jokes that need to be improved,’ Nicholas Barber from BBC.com wrote.
Despite the negative reviews, Sam Rockwell and Bryan Cranston received praise for their performances.
The film stars Cavill as the lead Agent Argylle opposite femme fatale Dua Lipa in her feature length acting debut.
Dua raved about her experience of shooting the movie, in which she was cast prior to her role in Barbie.
‘Argylle was the first thing that I ever did… loved the experience. It was terrifying and exciting and everything all at once,’ she told Yahoo News.
The film was first announced in June 2021, with a script adapted from the novel before it was even published.
‘When I read this early draft manuscript I felt it was the most incredible and original spy franchise since Ian Fleming’s books of the 50s. This is going to reinvent the spy genre,’ Vaughn gushed.
There were even rumors that singer Taylor Swift, 34, was the secret novelist behind the book, though Vaughn has since shut that conspiracy down.
Vaughn denied that claim that the hitmaker found time between her Eras tour and attending boyfriend Travis Kelce’s games to pen a novel, though he did confirm she indirectly inspired the movie.
‘There is a real book … and it’s a really good book. And there is an Elly Conway who wrote the book, but it’s not Taylor Swift,’ he clarified in a new interview with Rolling Stone.
‘I did read the conspiracies and I was like, wow, they don’t leave a stone unturned! But it’s not Taylor Swift. She definitely didn’t write the book.’
‘And I say that because I imagine Taylor Swift has a load of people trying to jump on her bandwagon left, right, and center, and I don’t want to be a part of that club.’
Matthew did admit that the superstar inadvertently inspired the film.
Taylor is the proud owner of two Scottish Fold cats – the same breed of cat that is featured in the film.
Matthew revealed that the cat appeared in the movie because his family bought it after being inspired by Taylor’s pets.
‘I got home one day, it was Christmas, and I was like, “What the f**k is that noise?” And I’m running around the house and I hear a noise, and the kids had seen a Taylor Swift documentary [Miss Americana] and there was a Scottish Fold in that, and they’d persuaded my wife, Claudia [Schiffer], to get them the kitten for Christmas,’ he revealed.
‘It was bought without my permission and hidden from me.’
Matthew then clarified that they had originally cast another cat actor, but he simply didn’t work out, prompting him to ask his daughter whether he could borrow her cat, Chip, for the role.
‘That first day of filming with the cat we had — this actor cat — wasn’t really working out, and I literally went to my daughter’s bedroom, because the cat sleeps with her, and I said, “Look, I’m gonna borrow the cat.” And she went, “Fine.”
Little has been shared about author Elly Conway – whose name is used for Bryce’s character in the film, and has been spelled interchangeably Ellie and Elly in promotional material.
On the Penguin website, Elly’s bio simply reads: ‘She lives in the United States and is currently working on the next installment in the series’. Elly’s Instagram account is empty – she only follows one person – her agent Eric Reid.
The film is set for release on February 2, 2024.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
