Spy * * * 1/2
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The good thing about comic spy films is that you get all the benefits of a spy film: glamour, action, exotic locations, amazing fight scenes - plus you get lots of laughs. Some of the action in Spy would rival a James Bond film, as would the locations, it’s just that we’ve got a funny fat girl doing it rather than a suave dude in a tuxedo.
Susan Cooper (Melissa Mc Carthy) works for the CIA in the operations room. I am wondering if there have been reports of deteriorating conditions in the CIA buildings because in this film the place is full of rodents (and they’re not moles). She partners a field spy Bradley Pine (Jude Law) by sitting at a computer, watching his movements and warning him of approaching enemies. So advanced are the CIA’s satellite capabilities there isn’t a building or corner in the world where she can’t see what is going on in real time and convey it to her partner quicker than the enemy can drawer their guns. (That’s pretty funny for starters).
Circumstances require a new agent in the field, one that the enemy does not recognise, because, as they mockingly tell the CIA “We know all your spys”. As usual the enemy have a bomb to blow up the world. Susan volunteers. Despite her unlikely appearance Susan had been trained as a field agent before being employed in a “better suited” position; so she can actually throw a punch and fire a gun. But the most effective part of her disguise is not that she is a tubby woman, it is that she is an American. Despite working for the CIA, part of the fun in Spy is that all the spy’s are like James Bond - good looking Englishmen, because, well, how else would you expect a spy to look? Jason Statham plays a bungling CIA spy, English of course, but with a cockney accent. (Unless I’m mistaken in real life both Law and Statham have been approached to play Bond so their casting is comically ironic.)
Her quarry (she who would sell the bomb) is Raina played by Rose Byrne, looking quite the femme fatale. Director Paul Feig puts the two actresses together again as he had in Bridesmaids. Susan tracks down Raina and ingratiates herself with her by saving her life in a casino. She has to save her, because Raina is the only one who knows where the bomb is located. They become friends until Raina discovers that Susan is not quite the savior she pretends to be resulting in a gunfight on a Lear-jet, which probably isn’t the best environment for such an altercation.
There are gadgets galore, car and motor scooter chases through the streets of Paris and Budapest, double crossing, knife fights with a trained assassin that looks like a model, helicopters, Rolls Royces and casinos where you need a million dollars to sit at the table. All that you expect and want from a spy thriller: and some things you don't expect like Bobby Cannavale doing a wonderful Italian romancer obsessed with the generous curves of Susan.
For those with sensitive ears beware the language is absolutely foul in this movie from one end to the other. It doesn’t bother me, sometimes it makes situations funnier, but boy they let go! For those with even more sensitive ears beware there is an awful performer called 50pence or something who I assume bought his way onto the film as everyone pretends to like him despite his pointlessness. Though Susan’s gawky friend, Nancy, who is sent by the CIA office to come and “help” Susan likes him. But she is working undercover so you never know. She is also acting as a spy, which makes her English - of course!
Susan Cooper (Melissa Mc Carthy) works for the CIA in the operations room. I am wondering if there have been reports of deteriorating conditions in the CIA buildings because in this film the place is full of rodents (and they’re not moles). She partners a field spy Bradley Pine (Jude Law) by sitting at a computer, watching his movements and warning him of approaching enemies. So advanced are the CIA’s satellite capabilities there isn’t a building or corner in the world where she can’t see what is going on in real time and convey it to her partner quicker than the enemy can drawer their guns. (That’s pretty funny for starters).
Circumstances require a new agent in the field, one that the enemy does not recognise, because, as they mockingly tell the CIA “We know all your spys”. As usual the enemy have a bomb to blow up the world. Susan volunteers. Despite her unlikely appearance Susan had been trained as a field agent before being employed in a “better suited” position; so she can actually throw a punch and fire a gun. But the most effective part of her disguise is not that she is a tubby woman, it is that she is an American. Despite working for the CIA, part of the fun in Spy is that all the spy’s are like James Bond - good looking Englishmen, because, well, how else would you expect a spy to look? Jason Statham plays a bungling CIA spy, English of course, but with a cockney accent. (Unless I’m mistaken in real life both Law and Statham have been approached to play Bond so their casting is comically ironic.)
Her quarry (she who would sell the bomb) is Raina played by Rose Byrne, looking quite the femme fatale. Director Paul Feig puts the two actresses together again as he had in Bridesmaids. Susan tracks down Raina and ingratiates herself with her by saving her life in a casino. She has to save her, because Raina is the only one who knows where the bomb is located. They become friends until Raina discovers that Susan is not quite the savior she pretends to be resulting in a gunfight on a Lear-jet, which probably isn’t the best environment for such an altercation.
There are gadgets galore, car and motor scooter chases through the streets of Paris and Budapest, double crossing, knife fights with a trained assassin that looks like a model, helicopters, Rolls Royces and casinos where you need a million dollars to sit at the table. All that you expect and want from a spy thriller: and some things you don't expect like Bobby Cannavale doing a wonderful Italian romancer obsessed with the generous curves of Susan.
For those with sensitive ears beware the language is absolutely foul in this movie from one end to the other. It doesn’t bother me, sometimes it makes situations funnier, but boy they let go! For those with even more sensitive ears beware there is an awful performer called 50pence or something who I assume bought his way onto the film as everyone pretends to like him despite his pointlessness. Though Susan’s gawky friend, Nancy, who is sent by the CIA office to come and “help” Susan likes him. But she is working undercover so you never know. She is also acting as a spy, which makes her English - of course!
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