Argylle

Argylle. A parody of the spy genre made by the creators of “The Kingsman.” If you haven’t seen any of The Kingsman movies, they’re hilarious. Their action sequences are brilliantly creative in ways you don’t see coming. I often find myself howling in laughter while also being on the edge of my seat whenever I go to indulge in the franchise. Ultimately, I would say this movie does a good job staying fresh until the very end in both its plot and action sequences.

Argylle follows the life of elly conway, the author of a series of spy novels titled “Argylle.” She finds herself in a pickle as she boards a train one day and finds out her books are supposedly predicting real-world events. That’s the basic premise. The plot is always on the move, so I won’t say much more than that. I must say, I did enjoy the constant twists and turns the plot took as the story unfolded. Every time I felt myself getting comfortable, thinking I knew where things were going, it would take another sharp turn and keep me guessing about what was going to happen next. Sometimes things felt a little “over-the-top,” as a parody should be, but it never reached a point of being obnoxious. All the twists and turns were a welcome surprise and I never found myself groaning at how things were unfolding.

I found this movie entertaining. First of all, I had a funny, yet slightly uncomfortable, moment when I realized I am turning into elly myself. I’m doing a lot of writing, not a big fan of going out, and I spend a lot of time with my cat (he’s even sitting on my lap right now, mesmerized by the screen.) I’m not so bad that I freeze up under stress or start shaking when a plane takes off, but I had a few moments early in the movie where I chuckled at how much of myself I could see in this character. It makes me wonder if I should be worried about the path I am going down. Who knows. 

The other big thing I got to thinking about is action. I feel like a lot of creativity was poured into the action sequences and a lot of people miss that these days. I feel like there’s a strong emphasis on character development and plot progression that things like execution and good action sequencing are a bit overlooked these days. It reminds me of having to explain John Wick to people. To those that don’t care, it’s a dumb action movie about one guy taking a whole two hours to get revenge for his wife and dog. But, if you know your martial arts, it’s an innovative new style of combat which is now referred to as “gun-fu.” 

In the case of Argylle, this means dances with gunfire, smoke exploding in all sorts of shapes and colors, fight scenes with characters swapping places with their novel-character counterparts and so on. The nitty-gritty of how things get done are unique and flavorful, and I feel as though a lot of people I talk to miss these sorts of things. It could be the particular crowd of people that I interact with, but I feel like I hear this sentiment a lot. It’s entirely about the what, rather than the how that things gets done. 

I believe people care more about execution than they realize, they just aren’t aware of it. I think it’s why movies like “The Beekeeper,” “Nobody,” and “The Fast and the Furious” are so popular. They do the same predictable thing, but they do it so well that we can’t help but love it anyway. I think that’s true of life, though. Not everyone has to be the next Elon Musk or Bill Gates to lead a good life. You can be a regular ol’ employee, but if you do your job well, it will grow and show. You may not go down in history as a legend, but you’ll be quite alright. You don’t have to be the hardest worker or the smartest employee to have success in life. You just have to make the most of what you are setting out to be. If you are a minimum-wage cashier who is friendly and good with money, you may be better off than the millionaire spendaholic whose life is falling apart. If you’re setting out to be a parody of John Wick, have a unique little flavor like The Beekeeper, and make it fun. 

That’s my two cents on Argylle. It’s fun, it’s creative, and it stays fresh all the way until the end. It’s a good spy movie with a bunch of creative action scenes that will have you laughing on the edge of your seat right up until the credits roll. Maybe we can even learn a thing or two about how we execute our daily lives from this. Maybe it’s high time we accepted our roles and grow where we are planted. But who knows, I’m just a schmuck with a laptop. Let me know what you think.

Until next we meet

Cheers!