Watch The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair For Free

How sad is this?

Fresh and Exciting

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This TV movie featured Robert Vaughn and David McCallum returning as their popular espionage characters Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, agents of the U.S. branch of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. In this movie which obviously takes place a number of years after the series ended. Napoleon Solo had inexplicably left or been let go years ago, and after he left Illya also mysteriously quit the force. Illya has gone to work in a store where he designs women's outfits - some of which are pretty offensive and revealing. This was a disappointment for the production as well as Illya's character. I liked that the fictitious character JB (presumably James Bond) made a brief guest appearance, assisting Solo in a car chase who he referred to as "a colleague." I enjoyed that when the program went to commercial the last frame was frozen and then blurred out - just like in the original series. I did not like the altered music which slightly resembled the original TV show theme. There were a few funny parts in this movie which bring back memories of the old series, but The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. is not a favorite. Many of the original episodes were significantly better.

Back when the old Man From UNCLE series was going I thought it was a radical concept. Here we had as the top agents an American and a Russian in an agency run by a British man to the manor born all cooperating against a conspiracy to rule the world headed by some evil folks. Detente a generation ahead of its time.Leo G. Carroll has passed on, but the United Network Command for Law Enforcement has another titled Britisher in Patrick MacNee heading it. A master criminal Anthony Zerbe has escaped and who better than the two guys who borough Zerbe in back in the day to get him.So Robert Vaughn and David McCallum are recruited from the lives they now lead, Vaughn as Las Vegas gambler and McCallum as fashion kingpin. Zerbe has also stolen a thermonuclear bomb and plans to blow it up unless he gets a hefty sum of cash. UNCLE's nemesis THRUSH is back in action.It was nice to see Vaughn and McCallum back in their old roles. Hard to believe that the kindly old medical examiner from NCIS was something of a teenage heartthrob back in those days, but The Man From UNCLE gave McCallum some short lived bubblegum popularity.I can see why this version failed though, it tried for satire and fell on its face. No wonder this was not picked up to revive the series

First,i have some choice words about this "unique" CBS TV movie from 1983-Nice,,But No Dice!! "THE MAN FROM UNCLE" was a landmark NBC-TV series from 1964 to 1968,as well as being Metro Goldwyn Mayer's answer to the 007 craze of the 60s-and successful enough for MGM to theatrically release most of the two parters as motion pictures. but what was never explained was how Viacom Productions got the rights to do this reunion movie,with out MGM's participation! director Ray Austin did a so-so job-but in all fairness,they still could've used any of the original directors who worked on the TV series,and why they didn't do that,is a very big mystery,with money usually being the main reason! the reunion movie was somewhat nice,seeing Robert Vaughn and David McCallum back as UNCLE's finest-but it would've been better,had MGM participated in this reunion! ironically,Michael Sloan,who later went on to create "THE EQUALIZER" TV series at Universal in 1985,also did the first reunion film of "THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN" and "THE BIONIC WOMAN" in 1987,using an almost exact same story,that was used in "RETURN OF THE MAN FROM UNCLE"-and over the years,i've been meaning to point that out,until now! point being,is that remakes and reunions fall seriously short of being the items they once were,when the originals had their run! pity,that Sloan couldn't get Stephanie Powers to return as "April Dancer" for this reunion,,but then, this movie just wasn't up to speed! about the only satisfying justice that was done,was in a 1986 episode of NBC's "THE A TEAM" series,when Vaughn and McCallum reunited,but was on opposite sides of the law-and the episode,"The Never Say Uncle Affair",was actually WAY better then the 1983 TV movie,because it was clever,and stylish! otherwise,the reunion film,just did not have the flare and wit,of the 1964-68 series, and could've been way better! currently,Warner Bros. is planning to make an UNCLE movie,since they own the rights,as well as the MGM library,but i don't think that their efforts will be any better,which is why the originals will always be the Superiors!

Aside from one of the theatrical cuts of a two-part episode of the original, this was my first real look at anything U.N.C.L.E. I was a spy fanatic and had great expectations, based somewhat on the comments that a favorite Marvel comic, "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." owed its existence to U.N.C.L.E. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. It looked like every other TV show of the period and the leads weren't young anymore. The fantastic gadgets were rather mundane and the super-guns almost non-existent.Some years later, I saw this again, with a more forgiving eye. There is a sense of fun to be had and it does follow the formula of the show, of which I had seen portions on video. McCallum and Vaughn are great and Anthony Zerbe makes for a great villain (as he usually played on TV show of the era). Although it doesn't look studio-bound like the TV series, you can't mistake the southern California and Nevada settings. Also, the camp (though a large part of later seasons) doesn't always work and is employed a bit too much in the end. Plus, Keenan Wynn seems wasted. On the whole, though, it's at least fun and entertaining. We do get some action throughout, as well as the intrigue and there is an attempt at character development.The best summation is that the film is a bit of a disappointment for a real, top-quality U.N.C.L.E. movie, but a nice re-union for the TV series. The budget is comparable to a TV episode and it suffers from standard TV editing. The are strange decisions made, like the creation of a new U.N.C.L.E. Special gun, but it is barely seen in the film. The originals were as much stars of the show as the actors. U.N.C.L.E. and THRUSH are shown to be somewhat laughable, than real professionals. Still, it is nice seeing everyone back and they carry things off with charm and style. Patrick MacNee and George Lazenby make nice tongue-in-cheek references to other iconic spy properties. The Hoover Dam setting works well for the climax and adds a bit of scope.Before this was made, there had been a script floating around for an U.N.C.L.E. feature film. One wonders what could have been done with a major budget and top levelly resources. Who knows? The premise still has enough originality to spawn a modern feature, though one hopes that enough of the fantasy elements would be maintained to keep it from being "Bourne from U.N.C.L.E."