On a personal note, this year was extremely hard for me. I went through a lot of things mentally and physically and at times it got in the way of my review writing. That being said, I would always find my way back to cinema; films have a way of transporting us away or to inspire us when we need it the most. When times got tough, I knew I could come back and lose myself in an incredible story and then to share my thoughts with all of you.
There have been some outstanding films this year. Incidentally my top five all came out towards the end of the year. There were also some that I wish I could forget.
Without further ado, here are my top five best and worst films of 2024. I look forward to seeing what 2025 will bring!
The highly anticipated new espionage flick from director Matthew Vaughn is about Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), a reclusive novelist who doesn’t get out much. When the plot of one of her books gets a little too close to real life events, she finds herself swept up into a life that she only ever wrote about in her books. With the help of real agent Aidan (Sam Rockwell), the two must think ahead of the game to save themselves.
Argylle had all the right ingredients for a great film. Unfortunately it fell completely and utterly short in so many ways. While it did start off promisingly enough, it wasn’t long before I started to lose track of what exactly was going on as the plot grew more and more convoluted. At some point, I couldn’t help but wonder if we were supposed to be taking it seriously or if it was some sort of parody.
One of the issues here was that there was simply too much happening at once. It was as though one detail from every spy movie to ever exist was added in to make the ultimate spy film. I’m not sure why they thought this was the right move because instead of it having a positive effect, I’d say the opposite happened instead. And once the twists were introduced, they just didn’t stop.
Another aspect that really bugged me was Howard’s performance. I understand that Elly was supposed to be scared – anybody would be in her position! However, I got annoyed with her very quickly and eventually kept rolling my eyes every time she was on screen which was obviously a lot considering she’s the main character. At least the rest of the cast was filled to the brim with big stars from the likes of Henry Cavill, to Dua Lipa and Ariana DeBose, Bryan Cranston, John Cena and of course Catherine O’Hara that it almost didn’t matter.
To say that Argylle was a disappointment is an understatement. I had been so looking forward to it especially since it was helmed as being the new Kingsman. It seemed as though there were some good foundations set that just weren’t executed well at all. I’ll probably still check out any future instalments to see if this one was just a fluke, but it wasn’t off to a great start.
Credits Rolling 