‘Argylle’ bombs at box office: £158m spy flick floods in negative reviews

“Argylle,” a spy thriller with a £158 million budget and an all-star cast including Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson, has failed to impress critics.

The movie follows a CIA agent caught in international espionage but has received overwhelmingly negative reviews for its convoluted plot, nonsensical action sequences, and underdeveloped characters.

A new movie, based on a book, called “one of the most expensive worst movies ever made” by critics. It has only a 37% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

“A talented cast trapped in an endless story with a fake cat,” Matt Singer from ScreenCrush admitted. Nick Schager of The Daily Beast joked, “Its comic touch almost as heavy-handed as its slow-motion-drenched action is dull, it seems primarily designed to answer the question, how many movie stars can one fiasco squander?”

“Argylle is a bad movie. A very, very bad movie,” noted David Fear from Rolling Stone. Carla Hay from Culture Mix said the film was an “incoherent, bloated mess filled with stupid plot twists, awful dialogue, and a gimmicky cat that looks fake for most of the movie”.

They added: “Henry Cavill is not the main star. Argylle is mostly Sam Rockwell acting smug and Bryce Dallas Howard acting terrified.”

The Hollywood Reporter’s Leslie Felperin added: “It all starts to feel like one of those very expensive, very elaborate commercials for a pseudo-luxury product you don’t want to buy — a perfume perhaps or some car.”

The Guardian said Bryce’s role was “awful”.

Although, Vanity Fair actually lauded Bryce’s performance, with Richard Lawson saying: “Howard tries her best to keep things lively, but she’s hampered by dull characterization. Argylle strains desperately hard to be kicky and twisty and raucous but mostly feels like a chore, a slog through painful gags and canned charisma.”