Argylle

“Argylle,” the stumbling, overcooked action flick from director Matthew Vaughn, begins with a kind of joke. Agent Argylle (Henry Cavill) infiltrates a Greek-set club where he encounters a blonde LaGrange (Dua Lipa), bedecked in a glittering gold dress. They engage in a sultry dance before she escapes under a hail of bullets fired by a gaggle of baddies. With the help of his team—a tech guru (Ariana DeBose) and sidekick (John Cena)—he escapes, chasing LaGrange down narrow streets in a set piece ripped from James Bond. When he finally catches up with her, Argylle and LaGrange exchange banal dialogue. “You and I are not so different,” says LaGrange. “You’re a terrorist,” retorts Argylle. “It seems we serve the same master,” she says. You can’t help but laugh. If these characters read like cardboard cutouts from a dime-store spy novel, especially Cavill’s garish high-top haircut, it’s because they kinda are. They’re creations of author Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), who’s presently writing the fifth novel in her bestselling Argylle series.