The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Maybe because I had low expectations going into it, and/or maybe because I just like Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer, I thought The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was brilliant. There are so many hilarious scenes, and the timing and delivery of the lines is (frequently, although not always) dead on. The plot is less than inspired, but it looks slick, and the soundtrack really stands out.

I didn't have high hopes for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. It got pretty mixed reviews. People like to pick on Guy Ritchie for some reason. I liked Snatch, and I wasn't impressed with Lock, Stock, although I can't remember either movie anymore at this point. But Sherlock Holmes was great. I need to see RocknRolla. I wanted to see The Man in the theater, but circumstances prevented me from doing it, the first time it came in from the library I flat out didn't have time to watch it, so I've been wanting to see it for forever.

I *thought* I hadn't ever seen Henry Cavill in anything until I just checked and found out he was the super hot guy from The Tudors. He's still super hot, and I love his voice. Solo reminded me a lot of Neal from White Collar. They're basically the same guy - a thief who got caught and is now working for the government. Although Neal wasn't in the Army. Henry's acting wasn't exactly perfect. There was something a little *too* mannered/deliberate/campy about it. But it did work most of the time. 

The only thing I'd ever seen Armie Hammer in was The Lone Ranger, but he was great in that. So I was basically just interested in The Man because of the two lead guys. And the trailer had some great lines. I liked the idea of these two guys who hate each other having to work together. I'm sure it's not the first time it's ever been done, but it looked interesting anyway. It was really tough at first to buy Armie as a Russian guy, though. I don't know how authentic his accent was, but I just kept thinking, "this guy isn't Russian and I know it." He and Henry did absolutely kill it a lot of the time in terms of comedic timing/delivery/tone, though.

The Lone Ranger

I don't know why The Lone Ranger got such bad reviews. It's a fun Disney movie with action, comedy, villains, likeable characters, and great cinematography.
 

The Lone Ranger got some pretty bad reviews, but it still looked like it might be fun. I don't really know anything about the TV series, so I went into it with a completely blank slate on that front; no expectations, and nothing for the movie to live/match up to. I was skeptical about Johnny Depp playing a Native American, and I was right to be; it wasn't so much like watching "Tonto" as it was just watching "Johnny Depp in makeup," but that's okay. I enjoyed his performance anyway.

I really liked what Armie Hammer did with the character of The Lone Ranger. He was pretty endearing. I liked how he always wanted to do the right thing, but he was naïve and kind of bumbling. He just seemed like a good guy, totally out of his element.

It kind of came across as a kids' movie, but then there was a lot of drinking and prostitutes and eating people going on, so it was weird in that respect. It was Disney, after all. I don't think Helena's character Red really needed to be in it. She didn't do much. And Helena's starting to look old. 

William Fichtner gave the performance of his life as Cavendish, or maybe the character design people just did an awesome job. He was barely recognizable; I didn't even know it was him until halfway through the movie. That lip problem he had going on was really disturbing. All the rangers were so dirty, too. That was weird.