Matthew Vaughn’s spy movie, Argylle, starring Henry Cavill gets released this week, and the first batch of reviews have hit Rotten Tomatoes.
Unfortunately, they’re not good at all as the Argylle Rotten Tomatoes Score is presently at 32% with 62 reviews accounted for.
The Audience Score will become available this weekend when the film officially opens. Check out what the negative reviews have to say below.
Update: With 197 reviews, the Rotten Tomatoes Score from critics is at 35%; the Audience Score is at 66%, and the box office is also bombing hard. Read my review here.
Who do the negative reviews say?
The “Rotten” reviews from the “Top Critics” offer:
It’s a nesting doll of a movie — a glib, winking, referential spy comedy that layers twist upon twist on top of each other to hide the fact there’s nothing at the center. – Inverse
A talented cast trapped in an endless story with a fake cat. – ScreenCrush
It sputters as it attempts to reengineer the mechanics of better films. -RobertEbert.com
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”. – Times UK
Though Bryce Dallas Howard is charming, this twist-dependent action-comedy gets tiresome – The Messenger
It all feels overly familiar, but the main problem with “Argylle” is that we never care about the characters. – Newsday
It feels like an achievement of sorts that while no one in Argylle can actually pronounce the name Argylle properly, this would not make a list of the 50 most annoying things about the film. – Daily Telegraph UK
One of the most chaotically stupid action movies to torture audiences in ages. – Globe and Mail
Argylle is a bad movie. A very, very bad movie. – Rolling Stone
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. – THR
What is Argylle about?
The greater the spy, the bigger the lie.
From the twisted mind of Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman franchise, Kick-Ass) comes Argylle, a razor-witted, reality-bending, globe-encircling spy thriller.
Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World franchise) is Elly Conway, the reclusive author of a series of best-selling espionage novels, whose idea of bliss is a night at home with her computer and her cat, Alfie.
But when the plots of Elly’s fictional books—which center on secret agent Argylle and his mission to unravel a global spy syndicate—begin to mirror the covert actions of a real-life spy organization, quiet evenings at home become a thing of the past.
Accompanied by Aiden (Oscar® winner Sam Rockwell), a cat-allergic spy, Elly (carrying Alfie in her backpack) races across the world to stay one step ahead of the killers as the line between Elly’s fictional world and her real one begins to blur.
The top-flight ensemble cast features Henry Cavill (The Witcher), John Cena (Fast X), Oscar® winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), Grammy winning pop superstar Dua Lipa (Barbie), Emmy winner and Oscar® nominee Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Emmy winner and comedy icon Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek), Sofia Boutella (Kingsman: The Secret Service), and the legendary Samuel L. Jackson.
Alfie is played by Chip, the real-life cat of supermodel Claudia Vaughn (née Schiffer). Argylle is directed and produced by Matthew Vaughn, from a screenplay by Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman).
The film is produced by Matthew Vaughn, Adam Bohling (Kingsman franchise), Jason Fuchs, and David Reid (Kingsman franchise).
The executive producers are Adam Fishbach, Zygi Kamasa, Carlos Peres and Claudia Vaughn. Apple Original Films presents, in association with MARV, a Cloudy production.
Argylle is distributed by Universal Pictures.
