The only problem some reviewers seem to have is that this Uncle movie came from the dreaded season 3. But, if they put aside their bias, they would see it's actually a pretty entertaining, star-studded affair. Two guest stars (Telly Savalas and Curt Jurgens) would later go on to be featured villains in James Bond films. The femme fatale, Kim Darby would star with John Wayne in True Grit and the Pink Panther's Herbert Lom is perfect as the main protagonist. And with a special appearance by none other than Joan Crawford, what else is there to say? I don't see the episodes this movie was culled from as overly campy. Everyone seems to treat the plot seriously enough and there are plenty of moments of sex and violence (death of Crawford, for example) that would never make it into a Adam West Batman episode. The problem is, these days everyone wants spies to be like Jason Bourne or for the action to be as melodramatic and serious as an episode of 24. This is what is ruining the Bond franchise, imo; nobody has an appreciation for tongue-in-cheek espionage anymore.If you are willing to suspend reality and revisit the good old days of escapism, you will thoroughly enjoy this movie. It's an engaging fun affair that has our heroes trotting around the globe chasing after Hitchcockian MacGuffin ("the formula"), what else could one ask for?

As the administrator of the Facebook UNCLE page, and having seen all of S1 and S2 of Man From UNCLE via DVD, I consider myself a fan of the series. But even as a fan, I cannot say this is a good film in any way. Too bad, a number of good actors such as Herbert Lom, Joan Crawford, Kim Darby, Telly Savalas and the smoking hot Jill Ireland appear in this film, a spliced-together 2 part MFU adventure.Also a shame, seeing as there is a fun opening sequence with a squadron of Wallis WA-116 type autogyros that attack Our Heroes as they drive the Pirhanna UNCLE car...as an autogyro aficionado, this sequence was released two months before the 007 'Little Nellie' autogyro sequence in 'You Only Live Twice.' There should be more autogyros in cinema, but they still don't save this picture. It's mostly a bunch of short, uninteresting vignettes, and very silly fight scenes featuring a bunch of goons in matching outfits, similar to the goons you'd see on the Batman show, working for Penguin or the Riddler.The most silly fight takes place in a night club, where the mostly forgotten bubble-gum band 'Every Mother's Son' performs...apparently MGM owned this group and used this film for cross-promotional purposes. Which pretty much sums up this film...just cashing in before the gravy train dried up. Vaughn and McCallum, who usually had a good chemistry together and had high individual appeal, seem to be phoning in their appearances...it might have been my imagination, but I swear it looked as if they were each wondering if their respective agents had been getting calls lately, or whether he should invest in a restaurant.If you are not familiar with the MFU series, you should know that Seasons 1 & 2 of that show were generally good (and a few excellent) but from Season 3 onward there were serious problems. This movie is from two Season 3 episodes, and Season 3 was the nadir of this series.The good episodes of MFU have cleverness, fun and some kind of a point to them....but this doesn't, and worse, it's a double-length waste of time, as opposed to just one misfire of an episode.I DVR'd this last time it was on the TCM cable network, it having been a while since I'd seen an MFU episode. Frankly, I would have been better off going the library or video rental store and watching another episode.This film is only of interest for die-hard UNCLE fans, or for college students drinking cheap beer to watch on a Saturday afternoon so they can jeer at it. If you've never seen MFU, this is not a good introduction to the series. This is sad, seeing as MFU is almost never shown even on cable TV.

I watched this not knowing anything about it. TCM showed it as part of their Joan Crawford marathon so I went into it blind, hoping to see a Joan movie I hadn't seen before. Well, I did. Sort of. This is apparently a "movie" that is spliced together from episodes of The Man From UNCLE TV show. While I have heard of the show before, I have never watched it. After viewing this, I doubt I ever will. I know the show has its fans and I'm sure the show has its merits that this film does nothing to showcase. But this left such a bitter taste in my mouth I can't imagine I will watch anything related to that show anytime soon...if ever. The thing that's most surprising to me is that this has a fairly big-name cast. Curd Jurgens, Herbert Lom, Kim Darby, Telly Savalas, Terry-Thomas, Leo G. Carroll, Jill Ireland -- not chump change. As for Joan, her part in this is minuscule and an easy contender for the most embarrassing performance of her career. If this is the kind of work she was being offered, no wonder she did Trog. I can't recommend this to anybody. It was not funny or thrilling or anything else that the supposed genre(s) of it would suggest. It was just bad.

Larger in scale and more ambitious in scope than the previous "Man From U.N.C.L.E" theatrical features, "The Karate Killers" is a colorful production, with a great cast (though many of the guest stars have little more than cameos), and packed with action that is constant, varied, and, in some cases (like the opening sequence or the one with the skis), can almost equal the James Bond films of the era. However, the globe-trotting, though ambitious, is not very convincing - least of all in the Japanese section. And the film contains a few too many scenes of women getting slapped for my taste; these do not sit too well with the general tone of the picture, and threaten to spoil the mood. **1/2 out of 4.