Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair

Description

Retired secret agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin try to stop a THRUSH atomic plot.Open Channel D! We re gonna party like it s 1964, when global espionage, secret agents, and evil masterminds bent on holding the world to multi-million dollar ransoms were all the rage. This 1983 reunion film recaptures some of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. s vintage "cloak and swagger," but it also has some sly fun setting these Cold War-era spies loose in a contemporary world that could use their urbanity and a sense of style. Things are different since suave Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and cool Ilya Kuryakin (David McCallum) retired. Del Floria s Tailor Shop, the former headquarters of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, is now just a tailor shop. Alexander Waverly (the late Leo G. Carroll), who ran the covert operation, has passed on, replaced by Sir John Raleigh (Patrick Macnee of The Avengers, ironically, the rival show whose popularity played a part in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. s cancellation in 1968). But some things never change. THRUSH has hijacked a nuclear device and threatens to detonate it somewhere in the United States unless Solo himself delivers the demanded $350 million of ransom. From the moment Ilya leaps in to the fray to help his old partner and friend in a bar fight, it s just like old times, except that Solo is a little rusty, and U.N.C.L.E. s hotshot young agents are a little less than impressed. But he can still teach them a few tricks. The pleasure of seeing Vaughn and McCallum back in action is tempered a bit by campy moments that echo the series unfortunate third season. During a car chase, Solo gets some assistance from one-Bond wonder George Lazenby, who cameos as a dapper-looking man in an Aston Martin with the personalized license plate "JB." But that is the most grievous offense in an otherwise entertaining adventure that will give U.N.C.L.E. fans many happy returns. --Donald Liebenson