Matthew Vaughn’s “Argylle” was long, loud, incoherent and boring. It was pure torture. A chaotic 140 minute mess of a movie. The big loser here wasn’t Apple, who distributed the film, but rather Vaughn himself. The fact that he could actually direct such a bad movie should be cause for major concern in relation to all of his other future projects.
Vaughn is now opening up about the bad “Argylle” reviews. Speaking with Empire (via ScreenRant), Vaughn addresses the “vitriolic” response to his action film, admitting that it “rattled” him. Scrolling through reviews, he had the thought of “what have I done to offend these people?”
My guard came down on Argylle . We had done test screenings that had gone fantastically well. The premiere was a really fun night, and it was like going back to the Snatch days where there was such excitement. And I started drinking the Kool-Aid. It’s a fun, feel-good movie, or I thought it was a fun, feel-good movie. We didn’t make Citizen Kane , but fucking hell, then the reviews came out and I’m like, ‘Wait, what have I done to offend these people?’ They were vitriolic. I’m not saying the movie’s perfect by any means, but I didn’t think it was offensive. That took me by surprise. I even went round to cinemas because I thought, ‘Maybe I’ve lost the plot now.’ It did rattle me. I’m genuinely scratching my head about that, because you can’t ignore it. It wasn’t like [just] a few bad reviews.
It’s not just critics who hated “Argylle” — it has a 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. It garnered a C+ on CinemaScore, which is a terrible grade considering most tentpoles films, at the very least, get a B, but not “Argylle,” audiences didn’t give it a pass. On IMDb it also has a weak 5.7 score out of 73k votes.
THR had a headline that read “Apple’s Big-Budget ‘Argylle’ Bombing.” And it did, in all likelihood, bomb, but we have no idea what Argylle’s actual budget was. THR claims it cost a “reported $200 million to make before marketing,” but Vaughn has denied that figure. If I had to bet, given what I saw on-screen, the CGI and effects, it must have cost at least $80-$90 million, if not more.
Vaughn must be relieved that he has a bunch of projects already greenlit. He can try to bounce back from this catastrophe. He’s already shot a secret film going by the working title “Project X,” starring Chris Hemsworth and Sam Rockwell. Other projects percolating for him include a musical written by Damien Chazelle, ‘Kingsman 3,’ and rebooting “Kick-Ass.” He’s a very busy man, but how long is this going to last for him?
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