‘Spy’ (2015)

“People are trying to kill me and all that’s left of my security guard is you two and you look like someone’s demented aunts on vacation!”

Spy (Paul Feig, 2015) is an action comedy which follows the CIA’s top analyst, Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy), who, despite her extensive field training, has spent her whole career at a desk helping and acting as the eyes and ears of dashing field agent Bradley Fine (Jude Law).  However Susan is forced to leave her desk and enter the field when Fine is killed by Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne), a Bulgarian arms dealer who is in possession of a nuclear bomb, in attempt to stop Boyanov and avenge Fine.

When I first saw this movie advertised I thought it would be a bit of a train wreck and pretty terrible, however I was surprised when I actually watched it.  In the style of Bridesmaids and The Heat, also directed by Paul Fieg and starring McCarthy, it is rather stupid and over the top at times but also quite funny, with some good characters thrown in to counter the pretty terrible ones.  McCarthy as Susan Cooper appears as a goofy and rather useless person who would be the worst choice of person as a field agent, but it turns out Cooper is actually half decent and can hold her own, especially when it comes to insulting people.  I also liked how Rose Byrne’s character Rayna Boyanov was so ridiculously pretentious and up herself, very similar to her character in Bridesmaids, and it was a big contrast to McCarthy’s character who is completely the opposite.

The character who made the movie for me however was Jason Statham’s super macho and over the top field agent Rick Ford.  He is so ridiculous and actually rather useless as a spy, drawing attention to himself and messing Cooper’s mission up after he goes rogue to try and stop Boyanov himself.  Cooper actually has to save him for half the movie because he’s so arrogant and thinks he’s the best, which makes him an even funnier character.  He provides Cooper a very long list of all the amazing, very unrealistic and basically impossible, and clearly made up feats that he has accomplished and things that he has survived.

Spy wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and I was actually relatively impressed, finding it quite a funny movie, although I reckon Jude Law’s american accent could have been better.