Spy, 2015.
Directed by Paul Feig.
Starring Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Miranda Hart, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Allison Janney and Peter Serafinowicz.
SYNOPSIS:
A desk-bound CIA analyst volunteers to go undercover to infiltrate the world of a deadly arms dealer, and prevent diabolical global disaster.
For their third collaboration, Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy have inverted the spy action movie genre with a surprisingly entertaining comedy. Following wallflower desk agent Susan (McCarthy) as she goes undercover to find a deadly arms dealer (Byrne); the jokes come thick and fast and those who enjoy a fish out of water comedy will find the film entertaining.
Unlike her previous outings, McCarthy isn’t as brash and in your face as her previous outings and the film is all the better for it. Whilst McCarthy seems to have a marmite effect on people, she is on point and hilarious in this film and many will struggle to dislike the hapless Susan. Although the “fat girl in trouble” jokes to start to become tedious towards the end of the 2 hour running time, there’s enough quality in the supporting cast to keep you from being bored.
The surprising star of the film is Jason Statham as Rick Ford a rogue but inept CIA agent. Whilst he’s delivered some comically bad performances in his time, here he demonstrates that he has excellent comic timing and is more than happy to rip into his action hero persona. There is also stellar comedic support from Alison Janney as no-nonsense CIA boss, Rose Byrne as the haughty arms dealer and Peter Serafinowicz as a handsy Italian agent. Spy also did something for me that I never thought possible – it made Miranda Hart funny. After sitting through an episode of her sitcom once, I was expecting to find the same irritating character in Spy, but surprisingly the prat falls are kept to a minimum and she has some great one liners throughout.
The story is fairly standard and intentionally plays to every spy action movie cliché known to man. We have multiple exotic locations, outlandish action sequences, double and triple agents etc. The plot twists can be seen from a mile off and the film does start to lose steam during its 2 hour running time, but it is still entertaining. Love or loathe McCarthy, she’s on top form here and her character is more akin to the loveable Sookie St James from Gilmore Girls then the boisterous Megan from Bridesmaids. It’s refreshing to see her take a different turn and I can only hope that it’s the first of many.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Helen Murdoch is a freelance writer – Follow me on Twitter
