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'Argylle' is one of the worst movies I've ever seen
Movie Reviews
“Argylle,” the new $200 million action-thriller from Matthew Vaughn, is a stunningly awful movie.
Walking out of an early screening of Matthew Vaughn’s new action-thriller “Argylle,” I experienced an emotion I rarely feel after watching a movie: Boiling, white-hot anger.
“Argylle” is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, full stop. It is not “so bad it’s good,” like “Cats” or “The Room.” It is a $200 million abomination whose contempt for its audience is likely only eclipsed by the fury Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Henry Cavill, Bryan Cranston, John Cena, Dua Lipa, Catherine O’Hara, Samuel L. Jackson, and every other actor involved in this ill-fated atrocity has for their agents right about now.
“Argylle” begins with a scene that wouldn’t be out of place in Vaughn’s “Kingsman” film series. Agent Argylle (Cavill) is trapped in a room of armed baddies, before miraculously escaping and pursuing a fleeing double agent (Dua Lipa) on a high-speed chase through the winding roads of a European hillside town.
The scene is full of knowingly daffy antics, including Cavill’s spy grinding a car down a railing “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater”-style, and a fellow agent (West Newbury native John Cena) snatching Dua Lipa out of thin air while she rides by on a motorcycle at full speed. This five-minute sequence is far and away the best part of “Argylle.”
But wait, there’s a twist: This scene is actually being read aloud at a book event by spy novelist Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard). To her adoring fans, Elly seems to have it all, but in reality she is an anxiety-ridden recluse whose only friend is her cat Alfie and whose writer’s block may prevent her from finishing her popular “Argylle” series.
On a train ride to visit her mother (Catherine O’Hara), Elly finds herself sitting across from a drifter type named Aidan (Sam Rockwell), who claims to not only love her books, but also be a real spy. Elly has her doubts, until — plot twist! — every other passenger on the train tries to kill her.
But wait, there’s another twist! Elly begins hallucinating that Aidan and Agent Argylle are the same person. Every time she blinks, the shaggy Rockwell disappears and the suave Cavill reappears. The ensuing action sequence uses this technique dozens of times, resulting in a thoroughly disorienting fight that completely destroys any momentum the movie is building.
Somehow, the plots of Elly’s spy novels are oracles that predict the future. There really is a shadowy government syndicate who betrayed Argylle (or Aidan, in this case), and all of them are chasing a McGuffin (a thumb drive inside of a silver bullet) that will expose the syndicate’s crimes.
But wait, there’s a twist! And then another twist! And then five minutes later, another twist! Over “Argylle”’s daunting 139-minute runtime, there are probably 15 or so “game-changing” twists, each more implausible and unearned than the last.
Vaughn and screenwriter Jason Fuchs try to have it both ways, winking at tropes of the action-thriller genre without descending into full parody. The end result is that by around the 30-minute mark, audiences won’t care about any of the double-crosses, red herrings, secret identities, or generally what happens to any of the genuinely talented actors who were roped into this train wreck.
Of all the assembled on-screen talent, the Oscar-winning Rockwell comes off worst. He’s stuck playing a spy who doesn’t know if he’s a mellow stoner or a grumpy taskmaster, a doofy klutz or the world’s greatest killing machine. No matter which mode he’s in, his chemistry with Howard’s novelist is nonexistent. You’ll be praying for a plot twist that places them on opposite ends of the Earth.
In general, the cast’s performance quality is inversely proportional to their screen time, which means Marblehead comic Rob Delaney, playing a mid-level syndicate stooge in a single two-minute scene, might be the best thing about this movie.
One of Vaughn’s few redeeming qualities as a director is his flair when choreographing action scenes. From a pure style perspective, there are individual moments in “Argylle” that are technically impressive, including the aforementioned opening chase sequence. But when the film’s final bravura set piece arrives, you’ll be so sick of this movie that the only logical reaction to the characters dancing, pirouetting, and even ice skating through legions of bad guys will be a collective shrug.
As a final bit of housekeeping, I must dissuade fans of pop stars Dua Lipa and Taylor Swift from buying tickets to “Argylle” in some misguided sense of stan solidarity. Dua Lipa is barely in five minutes of the movie, which, as noted earlier, is lucky for her. And despite the weird online conspiracy theories, Taylor Swift does not make a cameo and almost certainly did not write the novel “Argylle” that the movie is based on. I’m duty-bound as a film critic to not spoil the actual plot twists of “Argylle,” but I can’t allow anyone to buy a ticket based on TikTok misinformation.
I saw more than 100 new movies in 2023. Not one of them was as ill-conceived or as stunningly awful as “Argylle.” If it were legal, I would camp outside of AMC this weekend and beg people to see any other movie instead of this affront to cinema.
Rating: ½ star (out of 4)
“Argylle” is in theaters February 2, and will begin streaming on Apple TV+ at a later date.
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Movie Reviews
‘Hokum’ movie review: Damian McCarthy’s nasty little ghost story is undone by its own explanations
A stil from ‘Hokum’
| Photo Credit: NEON
For those of you already familiar with Damian McCarthy’s work, the Irish filmmaker has spent the past few years turning cramped Irish spaces into elaborate, nerve-racking machines for dread. His 2020 debut, Caveat, trapped us inside a decaying rural house with a chained protagonist and a grotesque toy rabbit, while 2024’s Oddity transformed an isolated farmhouse into a relay system for jump scares built from negative space and the sound of somebody knocking at the wrong moment. His latest, Hokum, pushes that approach into a larger setting without sacrificing the intimate unpleasantness that makes his work so effective.
The film takes place almost entirely inside the Bilberry Woods Hotel, a fading property buried in the Irish countryside where the final few guests arrive for a Halloween celebration. At the same time, staff members quietly prepare to shut the building down for winter. Into this atmosphere walks Ohm Bauman, played by Adam Scott, an American novelist carrying two urns containing his parents’ ashes and a personality abrasive enough to make even the resident ghouls feel hospitable.
Hokum (English)
Director: Damian McCarthy
Cast: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Michael Patric, Will O’Connell, Brendan Conroy, Austin Amelio
Runtime: 107 minutes
Storyline: When novelist Ohm Bauman retreats to a remote inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, he’s consumed by tales of a witch that haunts the honeymoon suite
McCarthy introduces Ohm through his work. The opening sequence shows him writing the conclusion to a historical adventure novel about a conquistador stranded in the desert with a dying child, and the scene initially appears disconnected from the main story until the camera pulls back to reveal that the entire episode exists inside Ohm’s manuscript.
This intro establishes the emotional logic driving the film. Ohm writes stories where people wander toward death because he has spent most of his adult life emotionally entombed inside the loss of his parents, who died shortly after honeymooning at the same Irish hotel he now visits. McCarthy avoids turning this into a tidy psychological diagnosis and attempts to reveal the damage through behaviour — Ohm humiliates a bellhop named Alby by heating a spoon over an open flame and pressing it against the young man’s hand after Alby asks him to read an aspiring manuscript.
That ugliness becomes central to Scott’s performance. Hokum strips away the comic cushioning that often softens his cynicism, especially in his recent Severance escapades. Scott keeps Ohm emotionally rigid even as the character begins to unravel inside the hotel’s sealed honeymoon suite, and the refusal to chase sympathy lends the film a sourness that works in its favour. When Ohm eventually risks himself to search for the hotel bartender Fiona, the motivation grows from guilt and loneliness over his botched suicide attempt. Fiona disappears after warning him about the suite’s resident witch, a local legend the hotel staff accepts with weary practicality, and her absence pushes Ohm deeper into the building’s sinister secrets.
A stil from ‘Hokum’
| Photo Credit:
NEON
Cinematographer Colm Hogan lights the hotel with weak lamps, muddy greens, and heavy shadows that preserve spatial clarity even when characters crawl through near-total darkness. Production designer Til Frohlich fills the honeymoon suite with damp wallpaper, antique furniture, and cramped architectural dead ends that make it feel physically hostile before anything malicious even appears. McCarthy then uses sound with vicious precision, as ringing bells ring, creaking floorboards, and a mutated, uncanny-valley children’s TV program begin flooding the ominous silence.
The film loses some momentum once McCarthy begins unpacking the mystery behind Fiona’s disappearance and the crimes attached to the hotel’s past. Several supporting characters remain thinly drawn, particularly the hotel management, and the screenplay occasionally mistakes withholding information for complexity. The final stretch also leans too heavily on explanatory reveals and heightened confrontations, with the climactic encounter involving the witch pushing the film toward bluntness when the earlier sections had earned their power through suggestion alone.
Even so, Hokum succeeds because McCarthy understands the mechanical pleasures of horror filmmaking at a level many contemporary prestige directors seem embarrassed by. Though the scares land with diminishing returns this time, McCarthy still stages them with the acute understanding of just how long we will stare into a dark hallway before resenting ourselves for it. His folklore imagery still carries the grubby charm of an R.L. Stine paperback pulled from a damp school library shelf, which gives the film a pulpy nastiness that suits it well. McCarthy never fully organises many of these elements into a clean mythology. What he does create is a horror film with texture and personality, even if it barely holds up against the mastery of its predecessors.
Hokum is currently running in theatres
Published – May 17, 2026 01:00 pm IST
Jordan Firstman‘s buzzy Cannes UCR title Club Kid has been the talk of the festival and market this past 24 hours.
Multiple suitors are in for the movie and what’s interesting is the size of those suitors. Multiple major studios have kicked the tyres on the project. Contrary to reports, the offers are already in the eight-figure range. They were there last night, we heard at the time.
Many have assumed this will be an A24 title come the final reckoning but there is strong competition for a movie one studio buyer just told me at an event is “the most commercial movie at the festival by far: it works on a number of different levels to different age groups”. Another festival regular I spoke to said they see it as an awards movie “for sure”. The domestic credentials are certainly strong. Some international buyers we’ve spoken to were a little cooler but ultimately who doesn’t want a heartfelt good-vibe movie.
UTA Independent Film Group is in the middle of the deal. Charades handles international.
Club Kid follows a washed-up party promoter who is forced to turn his life around when an unexpected visitor arrives. Reviews have been strong.
During the film’s seven-minute Cannes ovation yesterday, lead actress Cara Delevingne teared up. Firstman, who also wrote and stars, picked up costar Reggie Absolom (who plays the son of Firstman’s character in the film) and started a chant in his honor. It was a continuation of the hijinks the two got up to at the film’s photocall earlier in the day.
There are multiple projects in the market also drawing good offers. Things should become clearer in next 48 hours.
2.5/5
02 Hrs 30 Mins | Action Fantasy Comedy | 15-05-2026
Cast – Suriya, Trisha Krishnan, RJ Balaji, Indrans, Anagha Maaya Ravi, Natty Subramaniam, Swasika, Sshivada, Mansoor Ali Khan, Supreeth Reddy, George Maryan, Deepa Shankar, Namo Narayana and others
Director – RJ Balaji
Producer – S. R. Prabhu & S. R. Prakash Babu
Banner – Dream Warrior Pictures
Music – Sai Abhyankkar
It’s been a very long time since Suriya scored a unanimous theatrical hit. Soorarai Pottru and Jai Bhim were good films and received very good appreciation, but both skipped theatrical release and were released directly on Prime Video. Interestingly, the director, R. J. Balaji’s directorial debut, Mookuthi Amman, was also released directly on OTT. At a time when both of them need a theatrical hit, the hero and the director duo, teamed up for, Karuppu (Veerabhadrudu in Telugu ) a fantasy action drama film. The addition of Trisha, as female lead and Sai Abhyankkar, as music director, helped the film to generate good hype among fans and audience. After resolving the last-minute financial hurdles, the makers released the film today (i.e. a day later than the scheduled date). Did Suriya finally score a hit at the box office? Did R. J. Balaji utilise the opportunity to direct a star hero and deliver an engaging film? Did Sai Abhyankkar come up with chartbuster music yet again after, Dude? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.
What is it about?
Baby Kannan(R. J. Balaji), a cunning and corrupt lawyer, runs a mafia and controls the Metropolitan Magistrate court in Chennai. He and his team intentionally extend the court hearings, to get fees from clients for a long time. They even turn judgments in their favour by bribing the Magistrate. What happens when a father(Indrans) and his daughter(Anagha Maaya Ravi), travel to Chennai from Kerala, with a bag full of gold? Why did the father carry a lot of gold in his bag? How did the deity(Suriya), Karuppuswamy, help the father and daughter, when they lost their gold? What challenges did the deity face while dealing with corrupt public officials? Forms the rest of the story.
Performances:
It’s good to see Suriya in an out-and-out commercial film after a long time. It looked like he thoroughly enjoyed playing the role of Karuppuswamy in the film. His screen presence and performance were top-notch as always. Trisha Krishnan in the role of Preethi, an honest and young lawyer did a good job with her performance. And yes, the age is catching up with her and it was very evident on screen.
Indrans and Anagha Maaya Ravi, in the roles of a helpless father and daughter, did an excellent job with their performance throughout the first half. The scenes on them in the first half are one of the major positives of the film. R. J. Balaji in the role of a corrupt lawyer did a good job with his performance but it would have been better if they had gone for an actor who has enough experience in doing antagonist roles. Interestingly, he had more slow-motion shots in the film than the hero, Suriya.
Natty Subramaniam in the role of Magistrate did well too. Especially, his performance was very good during his sequence in the film. The film had many notable actors and bearing one or two, most of them delivered good performances.
Technicalities:
Sai Abhyankkar’s work as a music director is a huge letdown. He failed to come out with good songs and apart from a couple of BGMs, his background score for the film was very loud, especially in the second half. G. K. Vishnu’s cinematography is good as always. Particularly during the fantasy episodes, the colour palettes and the frames he used, deserve appreciation. R. Kalaivanan’s editing was very tight and engaging in the first half but he should have done a better job in the second half. Production values by, Dream Warrior Pictures, were adequate. Let’s discuss the writer and director, R. J. Balaji’s work in detail in the analysis section.
Positives:
1. First Half
2. Suriya’s Screen Presence
Negatives:
1. Second Half
2. Loud Background Score
3. Over The Top Action Sequences
Analysis:
The directors, Shankar Shanmugam and Atlee in Tamil and Koratala Siva in Telugu, are a few of the directors in India, who are known for making socially relevant commercial entertainers, engagingly and entertainingly. These three directors along with a few other directors, made many commercially viable social drama films with different backdrops in the past. Just like the aforementioned dire tie, the director, R. J. Balaji, chose a socially relevant storyline and blended it well with socio-fantasy, with ‘God Vs Corrupt Public Official’, as a conflict point. Sounds existing, isn’t it? It indeed is exciting and up until the end of the first half, everything seemed to be working very well.
The emotional drama in the first half is the major highlight of the film. Unfortunately, after finishing the first half on a very good note, the director and his writing team, lost the track completely in the name of fan service and commercial mass moments. Right from the word go in the second half, everything appeared too loud and over the top.
It takes a good thirty to forty minutes for the protagonist to appear on screen but we as the audience never miss the protagonist during this period because of the gripping emotional drama. Right from the very first sequence, the director pulls us into getting connected with the father and daughter duo, their struggle and helplessness.
The director deserves appreciation for making the audience feel the pain of the father and daughter and we eagerly wait for someone to come and help them. And, when the protagonist, finally enters the screen and takes charge of the proceedings to help the father and daughter, every sequence was appreciated with loud cheers by the audience. The emotional drama, the initial conversation between God & the corrupt lawyer, the subsequent courtroom drama and the pre-interval sequence, made the first half end on a good note and raised the expectations further in the second half.
Unfortunately, for some reason, the director decided to take a different route in the second half and relied completely on mass commercial moments. It is where the film completely lost track. After letting God win, although on a sad note, at the end of the first half, the director seemed to have run out of ideas to come up with gripping drama further. Is it really possible for a corrupt human being to win against a powerful God? No way, right? The antagonist character appeared so small and insignificant in front of a ferocious God. It appeared like the director too is aware of it and included the dialogue – ‘Is it really required to use the powers of so many Gods’, just to stop a small-time corrupt lawyer’. That’s exactly what we as the audience feel while watching the second half. Since there’s no story or ideas to drive the film further, the director filled the second half of the film with commercial high moments one after the other. But, most of them appeared over the top, including the forced appearance of Suriya in his crowd favourite, Durai Singham getup. Another drawback of the film is that R. J. Balaji, took the role he played in the film too seriously and ended up giving a lot of screen space to his character with unnecessary slow-motion shots, punch dialogues, etc. It would have been better had he concentrated on writing, particularly in the second half.
Overall, interesting backdrop, socially relevant storyline and engaging emotional drama, in the first half worked out well but the film lost its track in the second half with a not-so-engaging screenplay and over the top action sequences. However, Karuppu, is a much better film among Suriya’s theatrical releases in the recent past. You may give it a try watching but keep your expectations low, particularly in the second half.
Bottomline – ‘God’s Magic’ Worked Partially
Rating – 2.5/5
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