Spy - Review

Spy – Review

Actress Melissa McCarthy takes another spin in the comedy genre with a twist on the spy - James Bondish stories of fancy cars, international spies, nuclear bombs, diamonds, casinos, knife fights, slick jets, guns, martinis, handsome men in tuxedos and pretty women in evening gowns in the pleasantly entertaining film simply called “Spy”

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McCarthy plays a CIA agent named Susan Cooper who has an unassuming desk job as a “live” analyst. “Live” meaning that she sits in a bunker in Langley, but through advances of drone like optic technologies she can navigate the steps of the field agents through rooms and hallways; essentially keeping them from harms away by being the eyes above of what is bad coming around the corner.

When one of the CIA's top agents is lost in the field and the other top agent’s identity is compromised, Susan is the CIA’s only alternative to investigate the perpetrator of the lost agent as well as follow up on the case he was working on of infiltrating the world of a deadly arms dealer.

PROS: Written and directed by Paul Feig, who previously directed McCarthy in “The Bridesmaids” and “The Heat”, Feig throws a lot of visuals, plot points and an endless amount of strange characters on the screen. But the results are they all work, especially the hysterical egomaniacal exaltations of CIA spy played by Jason Stratham as well as the debonair stylish presentation of CIA spy played by Jude Law. And even though they never tried to hide their British accents it’s not an issue to the story all. There also is a range of other cast members giving funny performance including Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, Allison Janney, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, and Miranda Hart.

But the real star of this film is McCarthy as she is in virtually every frame of this 1:55 running time film. And like the great comedic actress Lucille Ball, McCarthy performance and timing was spot on funny and charming. She also when required made her character genuinely serious and reflective as well as unafraid to make the jokes about her with effective humor. She also showed some real fearlessness to mixing it up in various fight scenes with good effectiveness.

CONS: None really. You need to know going in this is a comedic spy story and the sense of urgency and threat is low key.

CONCLUSIONS: With a great opening musical score to start the film off I was thoroughly entertained and laughed at the upbeat and contemporary humor put up on the screen in “Spy”. The tone of the film is endearing, appropriately sexist as hell, with lots of solidly executed mild action and overall a comedy with a nice breezy feel to it all around.

McCarthy in my estimation is Hollywood’s equivalent to an ATM machine, you put her in it and money comes out – she is always funny and I believe capable of doing anything. Mark my word when someone figures out the right dramatic role for her one day, she will be walking up the stage one day to accept her Oscar; she is always that good.

3 – 3/4 Stars