Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. : The Fifteen Years Later Affair (1983)

The characters from the classic 60s TV show are back to stop The THRUSH organization from using a nuclear weapon to hold the world hostage.  Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin return to UNCLE from retirement to do battle with their old enemy Sepheran who insists that he will only take delivery of the money from Napoleon.  I suppose this is to give him a chance to settle things with him.  After a funny bit in Vegas where Napoleon meets up with a famous colleague, the action moves to NYC and to the headquarters of UNCLE.  Before things are over we get to see shootouts with guys in jumpsuits, an exciting boat chase, and the classic red wire or blue wire dilemma. 

This is a really silly little made for TV movie that I had a blast watching.  The story plays out like a low rent take on James Bond, complete with a cameo by the one time Bond George Lazenby who helps out his good buddy Napoleon Solo!  You have the beautiful women (sort of), lots of mano y mano fist fights, the wearing of brightly covered jump suits to tell the bad guys from the good ones, and the bomb that needs to be detonated with seconds to go.  So it pretty much plays out like an episode of the old TV show, which is great.  See if you are going to make a reunion movie then don’t play games with the formula and screw things up.  Just go back to what worked, because that is what the returning fans will want to see. Robert Vaughn (Napoleon Solo) and David McCallum (Illya Kuryakin) slip right back into their familiar roles after 15 years away from them.  These two guys have great chemistry and do a wonderful job.  In fact my only real complaint is that the story doesn’t give them as much screen time together as I had hoped it would.  The supporting cast is made up of veteran actors that are also fun to watch on screen like Patrick Macnee (The Avengers), Geoffrey Lewis, and Keenan Wynn.  You might not recognize the names, but this is a pretty damn impressive list of 70s “B” actors. 

If you like silly gadgets and overly complicated bombs that can only exist in this sort of spy movie then you’ll love what you get here.  From pens that double as communicators to the bomb that is so complicated that only two or three people in the world can arm it the cheese flows heavily here.  But then this is the sort of thing that you would expect from the TV show when it was on the air, and I loved seeing this.  See back in the 80s when they dusted off old favorites there wasn’t this need to constantly update things and in the process ruin what we all loved about the originals.  There is a valuable lesson to be learned here.  Not that anyone is paying attention.

The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. is available from CBS Home Entertainment on March 3rd 2009.  If you are a fan of the old show, like I am then you really need to add this to your collection.  It is a real blast from the past.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2009 John Shatzer