Cast: Melissa
McCarthy, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Rose Byrne, Allison Janney
Director: Paul
Feig
Running time: 1
hour and 57 minutes
This is just like any
other movie where an unlikely hero is forced to step up and save the
day. In Spy that unlikely hero is Melissa McCarthy, who is a CIA
analyst. After every active agent is compromised she has to go
out
in the field and save the mission. Sounds familiar,
right? Right, but it's also kind of good.
After the first 10
minutes, which were a little slow in my opinion, the movie picks up
the pace and starts getting pretty funny. There are a number of jokes
that will make you chuckle
or at least entertain you and a
couple of jokes that will make you straight up laugh (mostly
involving Jason Statham). It's not the most memorable comedy but it's
good Thursday night action movie.
Speaking of funny, when you think
Jason Statham, funny
is not the first thing that pops into your head, but I have to say
his character and his interactions with Melissa McCarthy where the
moments in the movie that I found the most compelling. Their banter
is very fun and he is not afraid to embrace the over-the-top nature
of this role. I wish he had more screen time and I hope he gets the
opportunity to get more roles like this in the future.
Another aspect of Spy that I particularly enjoyed where the moments
when Susan got to be a badass and order Rose Byrne's character
around. The different lines that she came up with were hilariously
mean and creative and the fact that Raina couldn't say anything back
made it that much more entertaining. Melissa McCarthy isn't the first
protagonist to rise to greatness from the depths of insignificance
but she is certainly a good one.
As expected, Susan Cooper had a crush on a handsome, talented and
stereotypically “out of her league” colleague a.k.a. Jude Law,
who never saw her in a romantic light and could have any woman he
wanted. Bradley Fine, however, was not as perfect as the majority of
handsome, talented and stereotypically “out of her league”
colleagues tend to be in this kind of movie. He was great at his job
and a good friend to Susan but, also, a selfish prick who convinced
her to stay in the basement as an analyst, when he knew she had
potential, in order to fulfill his own selfish ambitions. He was a
more complicated and three-dimensional character than a lot, even
though he was absent for a great deal of the movie.
In
a movie where there is a mission and bad guys and CIA agents and
everything else that goes along with the kind of movie Spy is, there
are bound to be some fights and some kills. Even though I though
those fights were well made and established Susan as an even stronger
woman protagonist, I couldn't get over the fact that in every
stabbing or shooting there would be one or two drops of blood and
that was it. Speaking from my limited knowledge of forensic anatomy
and physiology I have to argue that when a person is shot or stab to
death he, sure, bleeds
a lot more than that.
Now, let's get back to Jason Statham's character. Even though I found
him appealing as a character, I couldn't help but root for him to
succeed and prove himself. As established from what we knew about
him, Ford was a loud, over-the-top, sometimes reckless, in his
attempt to prove he is better than everyone else, agent. But he was
still a CIA agent and there wasn't a moment that would justify that
in this movie. I don't think government agents tend to be
self-obsessed goofs that can't get anything right and, always, need
someone to save them, but that's just me.
Finally, speaking about unbelievable little Spy sub-stories, I don't
understand the running joke about how Melissa McCarthy's character
knew things that would be impossible for her to know. For example how
she could find a shortcut in the middle of nowhere in Budapest while
she had never lived there. If that was an attempt to mock the
stereotypical action movie, I don't think it was a very good one.
In
conclusion, do I think Spy is one of the great comedies? No. Do I
think it's a fine way to spend a nice quite night? Most definitely.
Score:
69%
Tomatometer:
95%
m.
Courtesy of
20th Century FOX
