I spy with my little eye something I wanted to hate.
Enter Melissa McCarthy and Spy – the movie that nobody asked for. How strange it is then that, as the credits are roll, I’m thinking, “Hmm, that was actually alright…”
The first bad impression came from the pitifully unoriginal title. The second, the film’s initial premise as the classic ‘fish out of water’ comedy where the audience is subject to laughing at that girl from Bridesmaids because she’s pathetic and fat.
Move along. Nothing to see here.
Here’s the synopsis. Melissa McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, an agent working out of the ‘basement’ at CIA Headquarters. Susan is the ‘eyes and ears’ for Jude Law’s suave, Bond-esque Bradley Fine while he is out on field duty.
Before we know it, all the other agents are compromised, leaving Cooper as the only option to go undercover to infiltrate the callous and unpredictable Raina (Rose Byrne), who possesses a deadly nuke she is looking to unload to the highest bidder.
Spy blurs the line as to whether the film is clichéd to deliberately parody the genre or just the plain old three-act structure of spy movies, I like to the think it’s the former, where director Paul Feig has down his own Kingsmen style homage to the popular genre.
Feig himself is growing a reputation for re-inventing genres since directing Bridesmaids. Soon he will release the Ghostbusters reboot, so it will be interesting to see what he does with that. As for Spy, Feig also wrote the script proving he is skilled at both writing and directing. It’s certainly the script that saves this movie.
Another saviour of the film is its MA15+ rating. As a result, Spy feels like Johnny English on steroids and I must concede that the dirty jokes, swearing and violence legitimises the tone and doesn’t try to pander to all ages.
Props must go to a tight and punchy script. All the characters are funny in their own way; Jason Statham’s pathetic try-hard spy; the bumbling desperate sidekick played by Miranda Hart. Even Alison Janney turn as the CIA boss is witty and likeable.
It is clear that Paul Feig knows how to write strong female leading roles that still have the right vulnerabilities and faults to develop the characters. Spy is a film that will surprise you (it may even shock some laughs out of you). There are impressive set pieces, great locations, some cool tricky Go-Pro shots, and plenty of tantalising slow motion, which always looks good.
Spy may not be everyone’s glass of shaken martini, but based off a two minute long laugh I heard from the row in front of me at one point – shattering anything I’ve ever heard in any other comedy in my entire movie-going career – it will impress most ticket-buyers.
Overall, it teaches a good lesson: Don’t judge a movie by its poster.
