Matthew Vaughn recently opened up to Empire magazine about enduring some of the worst reviews of his career with “ Argylle ,” the $200 million star-studded spy comedy that flopped in theaters this year with $96 million worldwide. The film, backed by Apple and released theatrically by Universal, intended to start a franchise and starred Bryce Dallas Howard as a reclusive spy novelist thrust into a real world of espionage. Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L.
Jackson, John Cena and more co-starred. “Fuck yeah,” Vaughn responded when asked if the extremely negative “Argylle” reviews were disappointing to read. The movie has a 33% Rotten Tomatoes score from 292 reviews.
“We had done test screenings that had gone fantastically well,” Vaughn said. “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,” he continued.
“I’m genuinely scratching my head about that, because you can’t ignore i.