Argylle film review.

Argylle is an action spy comedy rated PG13 violence running time 2 hours 21 minutes. I read some cat organizations were critical of this film because of cat treatment portrayed and the use of a Scottish Fold cat. I will address these things. Before I do let me say I got suckered into this film because of the cat in the film trailers and thought he was the center of action and had an important role. Wrong. Leaving the cat out would not change the movie at all, in fact, he was gone I estimate in the middle of the film for 45 minutes. Second, i thought his name was Argylle, but it is not. His screen name is Alfie. Argylle is the name of a fictional spy in a series of spy novels written by the heroine of the film. 99% of the film the cat is carried in a backpack type cat carrier on the heroine’s back that has a round clear bubble window for him to look out. I believe the Scottish Fold was used because with his little ears his face filled up the bubble. Most of the time it was not a real cat inside. The plot is very complex but the main theme is a covert intelligence organization named Division is trying to get an information key back that was stolen. The CIA wants it too and enlists the spy book author to help them get it. Why? She seems to know things. Except for 45 minutes when she leaves the cat to escape the bad guys, he is on her back looking out the bubble. She explains she could not leave him home alone. Computer graphics enhance his face in some closeups–other times he was real.

Allegations were he was carried around by the scruff of the neck–I never noticed that and I was looking. In one scene he is dropped off a 3 story building onto a big mattress to demonstrate it is safe. The CGI cat lands safely on his feet. Then the people jump to safety onto the mattress to escape the villains. A bad guy holds up the carrier and says I hate cats and drops it presumably to the floor behind a desk. Not a real cat. The cat scratches a bad guy’s hand–looks real. The bad guy knocks the cat off a countertop to the floor–looks real. Total fake, the cat jumps off the heroine’s shoulder, flies across the room attacking a bad guy’s face. He is obviously holding a fake animal on his face screaming. The cat is in the backpack when the heroine parachutes off a bridge all fake. The criticism people would want a Scotch Fold cat because of this movie is unrealistic. All we get mostly is his fake bubbleface and he is not lovable in any way shape or form. The bad treatment he gets seems to me more cartoonish except for being knocked off the countertop. I think that was unnecessary. You could see him land on the floor and he was all right. I assume it was real.

Favorite scene: An attractive woman on a motorbike traveling 60 mph goes by a man on the side walk who yanks her off by the scruff of her neck and sets her on her feet.

Most absurd scene: heroine puts a big knife on each shoe and ice skates through a room with oil on the floor filled with bad guys killing about 100 of them while assuming ice skating poses. I was going to do a total film body count but guess maybe 250 killed by firearms mostly and everything else imaginable.

Favorite line: “Not the cat again! Just kill me!”

General criticisms: The film is an hour too long. The plot is ridiculously complicated. A comedy–I didn’t laugh once.

Good news: I saw it streaming free on Apple+ app. Production values were high. Actors and actresses were good. CGI adequate.

My Rating 2 cat heads plus 1/2 cat head for Alphie totaling 2 1/2 out of 5 cat heads. This is how I see it, you can decide for yourself.