Director Paul Feig’s over-the-top comedies have dominated the box office for the last few years. With his super hits Bridesmaids and The Heat he showed us just how funny adult comedies can be when done right. This summer he gathered his usual suspects of actors and made the hilarious action comedy, Spy. Melissa McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, a desk-bound CIA analyst who volunteers to go undercover to infiltrate the world of a deadly arms dealer and prevent a global disaster. Hilarity ensues, the only way Feig and McCarthy can do it.
The movie is a nice homage to the spy genre, using old tropes and clichés in new and funny ways. The spy genre is very old at this point, so it’s set in its own ways. (The Bond films are a good example.) So it’s nice to see a new take on the old ways; a flair that makes them funny but gives something new to the old style. Not in the sense that the old ways are being made fun of, but given the love and respect they deserve. Out of everything Spy has to offer, which is a lot, the affection to the spy genre is the most apparent.
Susan Cooper (McCarthy) is a simple desk analyst, mostly working with the CIA’s most perfect spy, Bradley Fine (Jude Law). After a snafu in their most recent mission, most of the CIA’s spy identities have been compromised. This leads to only one person who isn’t known to the evil Rayna (Rose Byrne): Susan Cooper. Offered a new identity and her first mission, Susan agrees on the condition that she won’t get close to Rayna, just watch and report back. Which, of course, doesn’t happen at all. She must figure out Rayna’s evil plan before it’s too late, stay undercover, learn to believe in herself, and deal with CIA agent Rick Ford (Jason Statham), who is continually getting in her way at every turn. All of this combines into one very funny movie.
The writers enjoy playing with the spy/James Bond stereotypes we’ve all come to expect and enjoy from this type of film, where everything always works out in favor of Bond or Jude Law’s Bond type character. McCarthy always seems to get the short end of the stick: getting tacky identities, sad gadgets or continuing to wear the wrong thing. These jokes make you realized just how easy Bond really does have it. One of the best scenes in the movie is when Susan is getting her spy gadgets. Instead of the real cool ones everyone else gets, she gets less than ideal ones. These all come into play during the movie is some sort of hilarious fashion.
One of the most enjoyable things in the movie is Susan’s best friend, who also is a CIA analyst; Nancy, played wonderfully by English comedic actress Miranda Hart. These two actresses have really great chemistry together. They just have comedic timing that works perfectly for the movie. It would be great to see them both in another film, because they’re just that funny together.
Also adding a lot of comedy is the always-fantastic Allison Janney as the CIA Director. She isn’t in the movie a lot but when she is she’s just as funny as she always is. It was also kind of nice to see Statham stretch his acting range a little with some comedy. Granted, he is just playing the straight man and, more or less, playing the same thing we always expect, but he is actually pretty funny bouncing off McCarthy. It would not be a bad thing to see a sequel with all these characters. They all seem to have a great flow and really worked some comedy gold together.
The action in the movie is pretty damn good for not being a straight-out action movie; not a whole lot of explosions, but there are some great car chase scenes and some great fights. The fight between McCarthy and an assassin is damn good, it could actually give some Bond fights scenes a run for their money. It’s choreographed well and has many moving parts; the actors and stunt actors worked very hard to make it one of the best fights in the movie. And it is.
As far as the comedy action flicks go, this is a pretty great one. It’s damn funny, and has great actors with some great lines. The comedy never feels rushed or drawn out. If there would be one complaint it’s that the use of bad language is way over the top. But, that seems to be a Feig/McCarthy thing: seeing how many F-Bombs with colorful adjectives they can use. It gets a little old, but the film moves at such a great comedic pace you don’t focus on it. Overall this is a fun movie that should be seen. So, get a babysitter or leave the kids with grandparents and head to the movies and enjoy Spy.