Matthew Vaughan, known as "British ghost director".
He partnered with his good brother Guy Ritchie to produce , " Two Smoking Barrels ", "The Kidnapping" and other film history classics.
Left: Guy Ritchie; Right: Matthew Vaughn
Later, Matthew Vaughn moved to the front of the screen and became famous in one battle.
's debut novel "Layer Cake" has multiple clues intertwined and interlocking.
" Stardust " , an adult fairy tale, unconventional and incredibly beautiful.
"Kick-Ass" , an R-rated masterpiece that carries the weird fun and prank spirit to the end.
"Kings Agent" series , British gentleman + boring humor + exciting action scenes, creating a new trend of spy movies.
Top: "Kick-Ass"; Bottom: "Kicksman: The Secret Service"
Recently, Matthew Vaughn's brain-burning masterpiece "Argyle: The Secret Agent" has further promoted his personal style and aesthetics.
The action scenes are smooth and colorful, recreating the style of "Kings Agent".
opens your mind and breaks the boundaries between reality and fantasy.
's extreme reversal, until the last second, can be called the "Reversal King of the Year".
in a nutshell.
This kind of exciting movie, who can not love it.
"Argyll: The Secret Agent"
argylle
2024.2.23 Released in mainland China
》》》》Subversion and reversal, leaping into the mystery
Yelly Conway (played by Bryce Dallas Howard), best-selling spy novel writer.
The mysterious agent Argyle (played by Henry Cavill) she created and the espionage group that disintegrated the world are sought after.
Compared with applause and popularity, Ye Li prefers to be alone.
She is immersed in her own novel world and becomes infatuated with Agent Argyle.
Ye Li has some social fears, is not very social, and does not like to make noise.
She lives in seclusion and spends most of her time at home writing novels.
Although, loneliness is the normal state of life.
Fortunately, she has a lovely cat owner to keep her company.
is typing while stroking the cat.
This quiet and comfortable life of a cat shoveling official is really the envy of others.
One day, Ye Li met a slovenly strange man on the train.
This person's name is Aiden (played by Sam Rockwell), who claims to be an agent.
This agent is very different from the Argyle in Ye Li's mind.
In Ye Li's imagination, an agent should be elegant, confident, suave, handsome and charming.
Take another look at Aiden. He is unkempt and disheveled. He is simply a tramp.
Aiden warns Ye Li that because the fictional plot of her novel accidentally coincides with the real spy organization, she has become the target of the spy organization.
If you don't run away quickly, you will definitely be killed.
After hearing this, Yeli Conway naturally didn't believe it.
She thought this was the crazy words of a madman, which was extremely ridiculous.
As soon as he finished speaking, a group of plainclothes assassins arrived one after another.
Facing the enemy's crazy attack, Aiden defended Ye Li with one against a hundred.
On the other hand, Ye Li was panicking the whole time and was in a daze at his seat.
As the saying goes, you can’t understand each other without fighting.
One is a panicked novelist, and the other is an atypical mysterious agent.
One loves cats desperately, and the other is sensitive to cats.
In this way, Ye Li and Aiden became happy enemies and fled with the cat.
With a witty, relaxed and exciting atmosphere, they work together to resolve the crisis.
On the surface, "Argyle: The Secret Agent" tells a subversive story where fiction collides with reality.
On the one hand, the plot of virtual novels predicts reality and subverts the boundary between reality and virtuality.
On the other hand, the agent filter in the heroine's heart was smashed to pieces by the hero, subverting her world view.
As everyone knows, the subversion of "Argyle: The Secret Agent" does not stop there.
First of all, it subverts the image of agents in previous agent movies and breaks the fixed filters of idol stars.
This unexpected idea breaks our inherent cognition and brings many surprises.
Matthew Vaughn has a principle when choosing actors for movies:
"I want to choose actors who you would not expect to play such roles. Such casting will make people feel fresh after watching similar movies." "
Therefore, letting Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell play the leading roles is a choice that subverts the old stereotypes.
Secondly, the plot design is reversed layer by layer, subverting the routine and making jaws drop.
In order to avoid spoilers, I will only give a simple example. In the
film, the director specially arranged a God's perspective for the audience, which created a strong sense of immersion.
The audience thought they knew the truth and were always worried and giving advice to the protagonist.
After watching it, I realized that this God’s perspective was a psychedelic episode deliberately set up by the director.
The result can be imagined, the audience was played by the director.
There is a line in "Argyle: The Secret Agent":
"The more powerful the spy, the better he will lie."
According to my opinion, this movie is also good at "lying".
It goes through extreme reversal and does not play according to the routine at all.
This fascinating and unexpected design allows the audience to jump into the mystery together with the characters in the film and get deeply involved.
》》》》Matthew Vaughn’s aesthetics of violence
Matthew Vaughn is famous for his bold, cool and amazing “aesthetics of violence”.
"Kick-Ass", the super-killing fight scenes, each scene is crisp and fast, bursting with adrenaline.
What is little known is that because of these over-the-top fighting scenes, Matthew Vaughn decided to give up on major productions and raise money to make movies by himself, for which he also mortgaged his house.
"Kingsman: The Secret Service" has more famous scenes.
Colin Firth gave an education class on "closing the door and beating the dog" in the bar.
let a group of gangsters know what "ignorance of etiquette means nothing to stand on".
The headshot climax scene near the end of the film is simply a stroke of genius.
Accompanied by the symphony "Mighty March", the originally realistic shots full of blood turned into gorgeous fireworks.
This highly stylized treatment belongs to none other than Matthew Vaughn.
In "Argyle: The Secret Agent", Matthew Vaughn also shot many classic scenes, which can be called an upgraded version of "violent aesthetics".
At the beginning, Matthew Vaughn wanted to start with an unforgettable dance scene.
He watched a lot of musical movies from the 1970s and finally found a disco dance.
At that time, others advised him not to include dancing, but he insisted on making this unique and exciting adventure.
So, this was born, Henry Cavill and Dua Lipa dancing on the dance floor.
The two of them are captivating and sexy, with ambiguous eyes.
A high-throwing and rotating helicopter dance brings this disco dance to a climax.
The ensuing two-person racing and tracking scene was tense and exciting.
John Cena broke out halfway, overwhelming the world with his strength.
I saw him lifting Sister Pa with his bare hands, which made the whole audience burst into laughter.
The train car fighting scene has smooth movements and is not sloppy.
It is challenging to shoot action scenes such as somersaults, close combat, and long-distance gunfights in a closed space, which must be smooth and coherent.
At the same time, in order to make the fighting scenes both exciting and entertaining.
Matthew Vaughn deliberately designed some juggling scenes to make the rhythm humorous and relaxed.
The fight scene in the safe house in Bakunin's apartment is my favorite.
This scene, in addition to a long shot through the apartment corridor, also has a coincidental fight scene between Sam Rockwell and Henry Cavill.
is paired with the lively soundtrack of "Electricity".
I can only use one word to describe it: absolutely!
In addition, there are two action scenes in the climax of the movie that are very eye-catching.
One is a duet dance.
Under a colorful smoke screen, Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell performed a joyful and elegant pas de deux.
Especially, when Bryce Dallas Howard lifted up Sam Rockwell, the whole audience burst into laughter.
Another scene is a fatal slippery slope.
Only a true skating master can perform elegant figure skating and deadly fighting moves with ease and freedom.
While watching it, I marveled at the thrills and excitement, and admired Matthew Vaughn's genius imagination from the bottom of my heart.
It is said that in order to film this scene, a lot of oil was poured on the ground.
》》》》》》》See it in theaters
Use one sentence to describe the movie "Argyle: The Secret Agent", that is:
Reversal and comedy go hand in hand, both cool and refreshing.
Brain-breaking twists, cool fights, handsome guys and beauties, relaxed humor...it has it all.
is a commercial blockbuster that is worth looking forward to after the Spring Festival. It is suitable for migrant workers to relax, decompress and laugh.
Now, "Argyle: The Secret Agent" has been released in mainland theaters on February 23.
What are you waiting for?
Hurry up and invite your friends to the theater and experience its unparalleled charm on the big screen~
