Spy

2015 is the year of the spy.

We already had the fantastic Kingsman (which is still probably the film I enjoyed most this year despite all the competition), we will be treated to the next installments of Ethan Hunt and James Bond with Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Spectre, respectively, and there are a couple others including the Hitman remake/reboot and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. 

Like I said, 2015 is a crazy busy year for the spy genre, and I'm totally on board seeing as how it's one of my favorites. 

With so many spy films being released this year, it's really no surprise that we have a few comedies poking fun at the genre as well. Kingsman obviously had a ton of fun with the genre's tropes and cliches, and now we have the appropriately-titled Spy to tide us over until some of the more serious films hit. 

The film comes from Paul Feig who also directed Bridesmaids (hilarious) and The Heat (I did not see it but heard it was pretty funny) and who will be directing the new female-oriented Ghostbusters film. One of the constants for him throughout those films has been Melissa McCarthy and they make a great team together, not much unlike Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay.

Plot Hole! Wouldn't the concrete harden and make the scooter inoperable?
0/10 -- Would Not Watch

"I'm the f**king Transporter, people!"

I found that the single best thing about Spy was McCarthy's character, Susan Cooper. She is a well written female character who has her doubts, but is extremely smart and capable to handle anything that is thrown at her. The plot of Spy is simple -- McCarthy, often a desk-jockey at the CIA (and a very good one at that) volunteers to go into the field because she is the only uncompromised "Agent" left. Aside form the whole plot circulating around a nuke for the 1000th time in spy movie history, although I imagine that was the point, I was actually really surprised with how much fun the plot was. There are twists and turns, and Susan Cooper thinks on her feet well. If this was a serious film, it would have been a sufficient dramatic arc but the fact that it was a comedy makes it that much more surprising. Aside from Susan, many of the side characters are also tons of fun, and a group I'd like to revisit again. Jude Law is solid as a full-of-himself American agent, and Rose Byrne further proves that she has a great comedic side as the love-to-hate villain. Her character is actually quite brutal in several scenes and it adds to the dramatic aspects the film tries to achieve throughout. Jason Statham is an angry rogue spy who I really wasn't fond of until the final third of the film. His character and the notion behind him is hilarious, but until the final few jokes, his character just isn't that funny. It's not Statham's fault as all, as he delivers with dead-pan machismo, but some of his earlier quips and segments don't hit their mark.

Dirty mouth? Clean it up with...well nothing.
Because it's rated R!

Which leads me to probably my biggest issue with Spy. It is a hilarious movie, when its jokes hit. To be fair, the jokes hit quite often and pretty fast. But the film has an issue with trying to make certain jokes work when they aren't. Sometimes it eventually pays off (i.e. Statham's final gags are a riot) but others it does not (most of Susan's friend, Nancy's, jokes fall flat for a majority of their attempts). Even some of McCarthy's ad-libbing is fair to partly cloudy, though I'd argue the funniest bits/one-liners come from these segments. The film, with Rose Byrne's villain in particular, also has a lot of forced language. Not something I usually comment on as language doesn't really offend me, but when it seems forced and overdone it can get old quickly. I wouldn't say Spy ventures into the overdone territory, but it comes dangerously close. Even after this whole paragraph though, I can't deny that Spy is hilarious most of the time and has a solid combination of one-liners, situational comedy, and physical comedy. 

Spy also excels at its action beats, although they aren't really anything super spectacular. But the fight scenes, chases, and shootouts that do occur are filmed well, with good kinetic style and part of the reason the film is rated R is because it's actually quite brutal at times. Several "kill shots" in the film are gruesome, even for a comedy, but I found that it helped separate Spy from the "spoof" territory and placed it more in the spy-comedy territory. There is good use of slow-motion with almost no shaky cam to be found and the fight choreography is solid, even when sprinkling some humor in there. 

Next year's Halloween costume?

Other than the fact that it was an advanced screening, my audience in Spy was having quite a hoot, and for good reason. Spy is a stellar combination of humor and action (it actually reminded me of the Jump Street series on several occasions) with a decent amount of heart and it's all centered around a fantastic character in McCarthy's Susan Cooper. In a Hollywood age of sequels, this is one series that I certainly wouldn't mind returning to sometime in the future. It's a win for McCarthy (assuming it does well at the box office) and it also further solidifies her and Feig's ability to work together.

Not really counting the instantly forgettable Mortdecai, 2015 has already given us two strong spy comedies. Let's hope that their more serious counterparts can be equally as entertaining. 

CONS:

• Not all of the jokes hit the mark. Statham's first few dialogues and Nancy's often-failed humor come immediately to mind
• Has quite a bit of language and begins to border on the verge of overdoing it
• The male nudity in the film is useless and the "joke" that comes from it isn't all that funny. I've got no problem with nudity, especially when it leads to something funny (and I admit that if it was female nudity I wouldn't be saying a damn thing), but it was just so out of place
• Why does everything always have to do with nukes? (Again, I realize this might have been part of the point, but still) 

PROS:

• McCarthy does a great job in several different ways. Her character, Susan Cooper, is very well written and a strong centerpiece for the film. McCarthy's comedic timing and one-liners are often fantastic, and she does really well with the action scenes provided to her
• Great supporting cast/characters, particularly Rose Byrne as the villain
• When the jokes do hit, they are some of the best of the year. Some very, very funny moments throughout
• Solid action beats that are well filmed and choreographed and shockingly brutal at times
• The plot is a good one if this were a normal spy movie, but in a comedy I found it really refreshing that the some of the twists actually shocked me
• It has some heartfelt moments throughout and overall it's a solid combination of the genre's elements and McCarthy's comedic capabilities. One of the best comedies of the year

 

Rath's Review Score: 8/10