Tarantino Calls Out Blockbuster That Lost Him Completely Midway

There's nothing worse than watching a movie that hooks you from the start, only to completely fall apart halfway through. That's exactly what happened to Quentin Tarantino when he sat down to watch Guy Ritchie's The Man from UNCLE – a big-budget spy thriller that he actually had some history with.

Say what you want about Tarantino's movies, but the guy knows how to stick the landing. Whether it's the nail-biting finale of Reservoir Dogs or the explosive showdown in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, his films never collapse under their own weight. The same can't be said for a lot of Hollywood blockbusters these days, especially those superhero flicks with their predictable giant sky beams and CGI overload.

When Plot Becomes Pure Chaos

If you've actually seen The Man from UNCLE – and that's a big if, considering it bombed at the box office – can you honestly explain what the hell was going on? Sure, there were spies and some Cold War intrigue, but how exactly do Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer get from that opening scene in East Berlin to whatever mess happens at the end?

The movie throws everything at you: shadowy criminal organizations, nuclear weapons, CIA agents, KGB operatives, a missing German scientist's daughter, some Nazi sympathizer's niece, a mysterious watch, an undercover MI6 agent, an island hideout, a data disc, and enough double-crosses to make your head spin. No wonder most people can't remember the actual plot – it's basically nonsense wrapped in expensive production values.

Tarantino's Brutal Assessment

For the first hour, Tarantino was actually enjoying himself. The movie had some genuine laughs and solid entertainment value. But then reality hit him like a brick wall when he realized he was supposed to be following along with an actual story.

'The first half was really funny and terrific,' he admitted. 'But in the whole second half, I'm like, Oh, wait a minute, were were supposed to care about the bomb? What the f*** is going on here? I was supposed to pay attention to the stupid story?'

The Movie That Almost Was

Here's the kicker – Tarantino himself almost made a version of The Man from UNCLE years earlier. He told the Village Voice that he had 'flirted with the idea of a Man from UNCLE movie' before eventually deciding he 'grew out of the idea.' Ritchie clearly didn't get that memo.

The project had been bouncing around Hollywood since the early 1990s, passing through countless writers and directors like a hot potato. Steven Soderbergh nearly got it off the ground with Emily Blunt attached and George Clooney circling the lead role, but even that version never materialized.

While Hugh Grant manages to steal his few scenes in the final product, the movie remains forgettable at best. What's really strange is that a film buff like Tarantino seemed genuinely surprised that he actually needed to pay attention to follow the story. Maybe that says more about modern blockbuster filmmaking than anyone wants to admit.