Sunday 21 June 2015

Spy

I think everyone dreamed at some stage in their childhood of being an undercover spy who performs death-defying stunts in pursuit of a bad guy (or girl) and saves the world. Roles models like James Bond make it all look so glamorous and easy. Who wouldn't want some of that action?

Spy (2015) is a new action comedy about a desk-bound CIA agent who spends most of her days providing intelligence and strategy for spies in the field. She has her eye on one particular spy she supports, played by heartthrob  Jude Law, but is an invisible to him as she is to her superiors. When a mission arises requiring an unknown spy, she tries to get herself considered for the role. After all, even they don't know who she is. What ensues is an undercover jaunt around Europe and a real comedy of errors.

Melissa McCarthy is hilarious. She throws herself into each of her new identities, despite them not living up to the images she had in mind. Unfortunately, Miranda Hart is as glib as ever; not much acting required for her role (or maybe it was designed with her acting skills in mind?). The supporting cast are as beautiful as the scenery and the world is heroically saved. Of course.

Switch your brain off and laugh out loud.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Im going to disagree about the switching the brain off, I was thinking about this during the end of the movie and on the drive home, this was a really empowering role model movie - the main fight scenes in the movie are where Melissa kicks the shit out of a lot of guys and the big fight is between her and a woman in an awful green jump suit who appeared to be an assassin of some kind.

The chase scene was Melissa on a scooter vs a BMW where she shoots the gun out of the hand of the shooter.

She takes her own character in hand and instead of opting for frumpy she goes for glam and stylish (her hair was fantastic and apparently she has her own clothing line)

Various guys got in her way and she dealt to them and faced down the spoilt rich bitch and held her cover regardless of the situation. She stepped up where it was needed, saved herself and ultimately the day.

It was great to see her in a funny but more grown up role, I really liked her in Heat with Sandra Bullock, and she does the angry mouthy thing really well, but this time you got to see her thinking and planning and facing down the bad guys in a controlled clever manner.

Everyone is singing the song of Fury Road, but Spy in its own way has a pretty good feminist agenda too, and Im down with that :)