A moderately entertaining exercise in the spy genre

THE Man From U.N.C.L.E. is cinema's latest example in an active year for spy-fi films, equal parts action-comedy, retro pop-culture reference and not least of all - 1960s fashion parade. In a sign that he is more of an establishment filmmaker these days, director Guy Ritchie tones down considerably from the witty, gritty, hyper-energetic Brit caper flicks that put him on the movie-making map (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch) in favour of a more stylish, (regrettably) less vulgar and (remarkably) bland offering, based on an ancient TV series.

With Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer in the vanilla-flavoured lead roles, exuding excessive amounts of male-model aura but far less in the male-chemistry department, this origins tale is an agreeable and moderately entertaining exercise in the secret agent genre.

It doesn't match up to recent members of the punctuation-mark brigade such as Kingsman: The Secret Service and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, and is fated to pale in comparison to Spectre (Bond 24, due just weeks from now), but it does qualify as decent-enough summer fare.