Beauty vs Beast: Say U.N.C.L.E.
Monday, August 27, 2018 at 2:33PM Hello and happy Monday, it's Jason from MNPP with our weekly "Beauty vs Beast" experience - tomorrow is Armie Hammer's birthday, and I don't know if you guys saw but I was kind of a Call Me By Your Name fan. But don't worry - we're never going to make you choose between Elio and Oliver (especially not for Armie's birthday, since he'd most likely lose that one by a substantial margin). No let's take a look back at Armie's other great gay romance (that's what it was, right), Guy Ritchie's underrated 2015 film of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. And yes I know that technically Henry Cavill's Napoleon Solo & Armie's Illya Kuryakin were (reluctant) partners, but do we really think if I put the film's actual villain played with swan-necked gusto by Elizabeth Debicki anybody would be beating her? I thought not. So let's make this a contest...
PREVIOUSLY Speaking of contests last week's Doubt-match was a bit of a doozy - over the course of the past seven days every time I checked on Amy Adams & Meryl Streep were about tied. But then what always happens happened - Meryl pulled ahead and stayed ahead and ended up with about 52% of the vote. Said Val:
"Does any of it matter once Viola Davis shows up, establishes her family's heartbreaking stakes, and commits grand theft movie all in under 10 minutes!? If nothing else Doubt should be appreciated as a rare moment where Streep seems knocked out by someone else's performance."
Reader Comments (25)
Can't I just have both?!?!
How ridiculous to think Streep was knocked out by someone else's performance. Davis had 10 minutes of screen time, Streep was practically in every scene.
I saw Final Portrait yesterday so I'm in the mood for Hammer.
Henry has the same sad eyes of Montgomery Clift, tall like Rock Hudson, hairy chest like Sean Connery, strong like Superman, and the face and soul of a Michelangelo's sculpture. I will be always IN for him.
I hope he get more dramatic and comedy roles in the future.
And we don't even dare to talk about the mustache in M:I Fallout. 😍😘❤️
I'll vote for Armie since he seems to know the difference between flirting and assault. But they are both just blocks of wood to me. Charismatic as fence posts.
This movie was such a delight.
For hawtness, I have to give the edge to Cavill because I prefer brunets to blonds (as someone once said, if they ever do a live-action Archer, they MUST cast him); but I found Armie's character here far the more amusing of the two. So advantage Hammer...this time!
(Although I'd vote for Hugh Grant over either of them, character wise...)
I also think this sentiment ("If nothing else Doubt should be appreciated as a rare moment where Streep seems knocked out by someone else's performance") shows a complete misunderstanding of acting. Viola did her job for her character's actions to shock Sister Aloysius, and Streep did her job for her character to receive those words and be shocked by them. It's a collaborative effort to support the story.
It's hard to pick between these two- who really should play gay lovers in some future film- and Mr Cavil gets my vote for the next James Bond
Jono, thank you.
It’s both strange and hot how Henry Cavill’s facial features are the exact same proportions of every Tom of Finland drawing I’ve ever seen. The mustache only confirmed it.
Armie is probably a better actor and I Iiked his character a little more so he gets my vote.
it's hammer time!
[illya was the funnier character so that broke the lust tie]
When I said "knocked out" I meant impressed. I'm not an artist and I don't claim to be an expert, just a movie lover who can appreciate a forum like this to discuss things from time to time. And let's be for real, even if I meant more than that, something tells me that Meryl Streep will be alright.
The Meryl stans are out in full force!
It's fine and fun to point out the one moment where our greatest living actor dealt with a performance that "knocked" her "out." It's just so noticeable because it's so rare that it happens that, in a film with Streep, she's not the one who walks away with the highest marks. Take a look at her filmography, especially post-80s - she's usually the one who gets more attention for her performance than her co-stars - from awards to reviews. Doubt was the rare time she didn't.
And honestly, Streep was clearly impressed - she devoted her SAG speech to Viola that year and leveraged her pull as a big player to declare that Viola deserved film roles. She was alsos a very very strong campaigner for Viola during the 2016 Oscar season.
forever1267 - My thoughts exactly.
No vote from me. Speaking as somebody who actually watched The Man From U.N.C.L.E. when it aired in the sixties, I hated, hated, HATED the recent film. Let me count the ways:
1. First off, I hate all of Guy Ritchie's films. He's the walking embodiment of style over substance. Everything he touches turns into just a bunch of allegedly cool, mostly criminal blokes doing mayhem, period. I mean, turning Sherlock Holmes into an action hero? Turning King Arthur into a bordello bouncer hanging with his bros?
2. Though everyone in the cast is beautiful, I felt that none of them had any chemistry with each other.
3. The "sixties" portrayed in this film is utterly bogus in every regard, except maybe the costumes. This is a frequent problem from filmmakers who are too young to have experienced it themselves (see also X-Men: First Class).
4. The film fails completely in two critical ways:
It subverts everything that was cool about the original series (e.g., at the scary height of the cold war, a pair of American and Russian agents are established comrades and friends working TOGETHER! - since the film stupidly portrays an unnecessary origin story, they're bickering adversaries through most of it). And where are the cool spy gadgets, the hidden HQ, triangle number badges, etc.?
It also fails to make the story/characters interesting to younger viewers who don't have a clue about the old series - the weak box office and canceled sequel prove this.
Okay, so I'm a cranky boomer who dug the TV series when I was 10 and 12. But this movie failed to "honor" the original AND failed to ignite a new franchise. Yeah, it's got attractive actors in nice costumes: I suppose that's enough for some folks...
Forget these guys...why isn't this the match-up we all deserve: Alicia Vikander vs. Elizabeth Debicki
brands and Mono, you both missed the point and so humorlessly. Irrespective of the playwright's intentions or the brevity of her screentime, Viola Davis seized her moment and flew so high, wide and handsome, that even Streep, that brightest sun, was eclipsed, albeit temporarily. THAT'S a first class performance dammit, no disrespect intended to La Meryl.
P.S. I guess I'm just an Arnie man, I don't deny it.
Well, Armie Hammer wants to wrestle. So....yeah.
Meryl won 7 individual Best Actress Awards for Doubt. She's fine, y'all. ;)
Meryl would have won the Oscar had it not been for thunderstorm Kate Winslet in 2008. She got the most awards attention and wins out of the whole cast of "Doubt". Nobody overshadowed her.
If you really want to push it, Streep GAVE the scene to Davis. And then Streep advocated for Davis repeatedly after that. Streep is what we call a generous actor.
That stated I think an interesting game would be to mention scenes where Streep was outperformed.
The Streep fans getting delusional here. Viola snatched her and that’s that.
I have to agree with Ben. It's Elizabeth Debicki and Alicia Vikander
who are the memorable ones.