Spy: The Should, the Could and the Empty

Being praised as a progressive comedy, much in the way Bridesmaids was, Melissa McCarthy and director Paul Fieg reteam to tell the story of a CIA desk jockey who becomes a true agent. With a stellar supporting cast, what could go wrong?

As it turns out, quite a bit.

When McCarthy's character, Susan, has to listen to and witness the murder of her long-time crush and field operative (played forgettably by Jude Law), she decides to take action and enter the field herself to take down the femme fatale who killed him. Plus, apparently all active agents have been leaked to the baddie, portrayed amazingly by Rose Byrne, so Susan is now needed in order to infiltrate the villain's posse. Jason Statham also pops in and out with lines of ridiculous braggery, which is an obvious parody of many of the characters he plays as well as the larger-than-life spies typically in these films. But that's just the problem: obvious humor.

I don't like writing these reviews negatively, so I want to start with what was done well. McCarthy is a great heroine that is for all intents and purposes, an average girl thrown into a hazardous situation. Statham's over-the-top dialogue definitely made me chuckle, and McCarthy's fireworks with Rose Byrne were some of the best lines in the film. I also really enjoyed watching an action film where the protagonist, their best friend and the antagonist were all women for a change without being hypersexualized.

But the humor just wasn't there. I chuckled twice, both times involving Statham, and otherwise sat through a two hour film that should've been eighty minutes or so, The first hour is so boring that I found myself constantly checking my watch. The reason for this: they repeat every joke made. Seriously. Wow, Susan gets to go into the field, here's a stereotypical middle-aged single woman cover identity (bad hair, lots of cats), haha! Ah, her next identity is also a stereotype, geez, clever. And the next... You get the picture. Statham had a great testosterone-fueled monologue early on, then devolves into making cameos with similar lines of dialogue. A man hits on Susan throughout the film, constantly trying to grope her (it's funny maybe the first two times). For the first half of the movie, Susan is a bumbling, mumbling half-idiot whose humor mostly relies on the fact that McCarthy is a short, plump woman. Then for the next half, out of nowhere, she becomes a foulmouthed agent with spunk and attitude. Honestly, that made me far more interested in her character, but her dialogue degraded into constant insult fights with everyone she talked to. Then the finale is just awful, ripped straight out of Jump Street 22 who ripped out of someone else, I'm sure. Oh, the action is so forgettable that I don't have anything to write about it because I don't remember it at all.

I see where Feig was trying to make this a farce of sorts, much like Jump Street 22 was for big-budget sequels or Kingsman was for spy films. But what we ended up getting was a bizarre mixture of The Hangover Girls and Get Smart. If you are easily entertained or love screwball comedies in general for their awkward situations, there is plenty here for you. As for me, I trust that a good night's sleep followed by a viewing of any other film will promptly dump all memory.


Verdict: Although I'm sure that others will enjoy this film more than I did, I will say that you COULD see Spy IN A DOLLAR THEATER, or just Redbox for that matter. No cinematic value to see it in a theater; none of the action or comedy will be enhanced by it, sadly.