'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.': EW review

Long on style but short on substance, Guy Ritchie’s ring-a-ding-ding Cold War spy thriller attempts to resurrect a mothballed ’60s TV series the way that Mission: Impossible did. It doesn’t work this time. Henry Cavill, who manages to be even less charismatic here than he was in Man of Steel, stars as Napoleon Solo—a suave, Don Draper-esque American agent forced to team up with a dour KGB brute (Armie Hammer behind a thick Russian moose-and-squirrel accent) to find the nuclear-scientist father of a mysterious German beauty (Alicia Vikander). 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. The only bit of fun arrives when Hugh Grant, playing a lockjawed British spymaster, shows up to set the table for a sequel that I predict will never happen. C–