SPY - review

SPY
Director: Paul Feig
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Rose Byrne, Miranda Hart, Jason Statham, Allison Janney, Bobby Cannavale

Recently I've found Melissa McCarthy to be a little bit type cast in the stupid funny comedies, and I was thinking that SPY would be much the same - a bit of a stupid funny comedy. It was a stupid funny comedy, but it was a GOOD stupid funny comedy and McCarthy was wonderful in it.

In their last movie together Feig took a mostly male dominated genre (buddy cop) and put a female spin on it. THE HEAT was a bit of a flop for me, a stupid funny comedy that didn't hit the mark. This time round Feig has put a female spin on the spy movie genre that is again a mostly male dmoniated genre, and this time round it worked.

SPY starts off with a little nod to the traditional nature of spy movies, the woman is desk bound and the strapping young lad is off in the field doing all the dirty work. McCarthy plays the desk bound woman Susan Cooper who is the desk jockey partner, guiding her strapping partner Bradley Fine through his very exciting field missions. She has spent her entire career in his shadow, and when he goes MIA, she gets the opportunity to step up and take her place in the field. She's trained for it, she went through the academy, was quite successful, and then ended up plonked behind the desk of her mentor.

Cooper and Fine at a celebratory dinner 

The film has some amusing parodies about the very unglamours nature of the CIA office, where Cooper is located in the building's basement, and other reviewers are claiming it's a little metaphor for the way Hollywood treats actresses. Now I didn't get that at all, and I did plenty of film analysis and theme studies as an English major, and I did not pick up on that at all, and I don't know that the majority of other people would either.

Cooper is very obviously in love with her partner, Fine, and when he goes MIA, and the rest of the film follows the basic premise of FACE/OFF, in fact they make a little joke about it in the script. There's a super nuke hidden somewhere, and the only person who knows where it's hidden is the daughter of a now dead international arms dealer Rayna (Rose Byrne). Somewhow she has all the identities of the top CIA agents, and the only person left to go after her and save the world is our lovely little desk jockey Susan Cooper.

Crocker giving Cooper her first mission

Cooper's boss, Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney) gives her a 'track and report' mission, but somehow Cooper cannot help but get far more involved, leady to a serious of comedic hijinks and spy escapades. She assumes a new identity and infiltrates Rayna's circle and does her best to get to the bottom os the missing and very dangerous nuke. Cooper is surrounded by naysayers who keep telling her she can't do it and biggest of all the naysayers is Agent Rick Ford (Jason Satham) who surprisingly is a comedic genius - who knew?!

the moment of infiltration and an acid martini 

The hilarious hijinks carry on throughout the movie and McCarthy and Statham play off each other beautifully. I didn't think he had it in him to be the funny guy, but he even steals some scenes from McCarthy throughout the film. It was quite a glorious thing to watch. I'd pick a favourite bit, but I can't, it really was an all round funny movie, a little spoofy at times, but I think that was the point.

The film was wonderfully directed, Feig has done an excellent job, and the rest of the casting is great. Byrne, Law, Hart and Cannavale make for a super supporting cast, and the script is full of excellent one liners. There are some super fight and chase scenes, a few SFX, but nothing too OTT. Oh, except maybe the helicopter thing, that might have been a little OTT, but I enjoyed it anyway.

I won't go much further into it, because I want you to enjoy the film for yourself. Don't get me wrong, I don't know that this film is going to be an award winning film, but it's certainly one of the more enjoyable comedies I've seen this year and I would recommend that you go and see it if you get the chance. It's got at least 20-something dollars worth of laughs in it, if not more.

3.5 out of 5

xoxo
The Blonde Bombshell