Argylle Flops With Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes has declassified the critical consensus on Argylle. The new spy comedy from Kingsman: The Secret Service director Matthew Vaughn — which boasts an all-star international cast that includes Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, John Cena, Dua Lipa, and Samuel L. Jackson — debuted on the review aggregator with just a 37%approval from critics. The green splat marks three consecutive rotten scores for Vaughn as a director following his 2021’s The King’s Man (40%) and 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle (50%).  

“With Argylle, Vaughn continues to dabble in the realm of thespy thriller, which is filled with half-cooked characters and convolutednarrative threads,” writes Patrick Cavanaugh in ComicBook‘s 2/5 star review. “There are moments of joy in the final act, though ittakes nearly two hours to get to any of the familiar fun that he hasdelivered more effectively in previous outings.”

Critics seem to agree that Argylle‘s plot twists are too many and the “Vaughian” action too late. Here are excerpts from reviews from around the internet:

The Hollywood Reporter: “it’s entirely possible that the film will find a constituency who willlove its mirthless, shouty performances, its tortured random plot twistsand its appallingly shonky-looking CGI. But there is also a distinctpossibility audiences will turn up their noses at this like it’s a freshlitter box deposit… Although allegedly made with a $200m budget and featuring what looks on paper like a fancy-pants cast, Argyllemay mark a new low, with jokes that struggle to land; an attenuatedrunning time that tests patience; cartoonish, stylized violence that is,almost literally, little more than smoke and mirrors; and Apple productplacement so aggressive it feels like a kind of assault.” 

Rolling Stone: “There is indeed a secret at the center of this rehash of other moviesinvolving spy-vs.-spy shenanigans, international intrigue, andtriple-crosses. Whether you find it shocking or shockingly predictableis totally subjective. Ditto the lack of concrete confirmationsregarding certain aspects of the movie’s alleged origin story. What wecan tell you is that there’s another, even more profound revelation longbefore that ‘gotcha!’ exposition gets dropped. You start to suspect itbefore you’ve even transitioned out of the first act, and it’s more orless confirmed by the time the big whoa moment shows up. The spoiler is: Argylle is a bad movie. A very, very bad movie.” 

Empire: “While the director’s signature excesses are out, his playfulness remains. As telegraphed by Argylle‘sunnecessarily convoluted origins (the film is seemingly based on a realnovel by author ‘Elly Conway’, who is actually the film’s leadcharacter, played by Bryce Dallas Howard), this is a film that wilfullyfreefalls down its own narrative rabbit hole, unspooling an array oftwists across its runtime while paying homage to the fun, frivolity andfashion of ’60s spy flicks.”

The Film Verdict: “The studio has askedcritics not to reveal the multiple plot twists. This is unsurprising,since those twists underscore the weakness of the screenplay: It’sconstantly pulling the rug out from under viewers, only to reveal nofloor underneath.”

USA Today: “Matthew Vaughn is a proven commodity in the spy-movie biz with his Kingsman universe, and Argylle boasts a notable cast and a sensational premise that traverses a fine line between what’s fiction and what’s not. Yet the movie disappoints by fumbling away most of its wins and piling on double- and triple-crosses and other trappings of a bespoke espionage world… Argylle weaves an intriguing narrative until the major twist happens in Jason Fuchs’ screenplay when the movie takes a turn for the predictable and muddled.”

RogerEbert.com: “There are several convenient twists this review will not divulge. Butsuffice to say, the more Vaughn tries to explain, the less fun thisbecomes (the inconsistent switching between color photography to blackand white does not help matters) … It all culminates in a big hallway set piece, meant to be quirkyand operatic, but in reality, might be the dreariest action scenecommitted to film. Vaughn doesn’t understand how bodies move throughspace, instead turning up his usual desire to warp fight choreographyinto overstretched plastic to unstable levels.”

In Argylle, Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World franchise) is Elly Conway, thereclusive author of a series of best-selling espionage novels, whoseidea 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 secretagent Argylle and his mission to unravel a global spy syndicate—begin tomirror the covert actions of a real-life spy organization, quietevenings at home become a thing of the past. Accompanied by Aidan (Oscar winner Sam Rockwell), a cat-allergicspy, Elly (carrying Alfie in her backpack) races across the world tostay one step ahead of the killers as the line between Elly’s fictionalworld and her real one begins to blur.

Argylle is playing only in movie theaters February 2.