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Can a movie be just funny with
little to nothing of quality behind it?
That is the argument I got myself into with myself in the three weeks
since seeing SPY. I’ve been racking my
brain for a movie that is so funny that the shortcomings of the story and look
of the movie can be overlooked. And for
the two plus hours of writing this review, I can’t think of a movie like
SPY. SPY feels like the best vulgar
sitcom on television that just leaves you wanting more and better.
Susan Cooper (McCarthy) loves her
job most days. She is the eyes, ears,
radar and conscience for superspy Bradley Fine (Law). After Bradley is murdered by a super villain
Tihomir Boyanov’s just-as-evil daughter Rayna (Byrne), Susan’s worst day of her
career turns into the best when her superior (Janney) is forced to send her out
into the field to avenge his death, much to the chagrin of the agency’s best
spy Rick Ford (Statham).
Let me just get this out there
before I appear to contradict myself in the next 500 or so words: I did in fact
laugh during this movie about a dozen times.
There are really, really good jokes spread out over the two hour
runtime. The best jokes are the ones
that poke fun at the many spy movie clichés we have become so familiar with in
the numerous James Bond movies and their imitators. McCarthy can throw out the one-liners like
the best of the best in Hollywood.
Personally, I’ve missed the charm Jude Law brings to the screen. And Statham shows that he is no one-trick,
action-centric pony with his timing & line delivery.
SPY’s problems are two fold. First, the humor. As much as I laughed, the audience laughed at
least 2.5 times as much, which is my problem, not writer/director Paul Feig’s. But there were a minimum of 15 major attempts
at jokes that didn’t result in a chuckle from the preview audience. How can a comedy be classified as “good” if
it is only successful 60% of the time?
Another issue with the humor was the subject matter.
Remember how I said the best jokes
were the ones that poked fun at the spy movies clichés? Well, those were maybe 25% of the jokes. A majority of the comedy stems from what is
quickly becoming a cliché in the Melissa McCarthy filmography: her
appearance. The occasional quip about her
weight, age, beauty (or lack thereof) or physique is fine. But Feig (or the actors, if this were improv)
loads so many of these one-liners, which feels like 60% of the jokes & many
of them in rapid succession, that SPY ceases to be funny and starts to feel
mean-spirited. Statham’s character in
particular goes overboard. Rick Ford
should have been this totally outlandish James Bond-type character. Instead, too often, he’s just an asshole.
Where SPY really loses its way is in
the antagonist department. Feig deserves
credit for making the audience hate Rayna.
We should all hate anyone who kills Jude Law. Where the movie falls apart are the constant
reminders that Rayna isn’t the center of the operation. That distinction belongs to Sergio De Luca
(Cannavale). De Luca is frequently
referenced throughout the movie but we only get to spend time with him in the
final 20 minutes or so. If a villain is
going to be hyped as much as De Luca is, he better be worth the wait. Unfortuately, De Luca is nothing but a
commanding, all-bark-but-no-bite ringleader who steals the spotlight by being
the center of the uneventful climax.
Cannavale plays De Luca so straight & wooden you’d swear a cardboard
cutout were on-screen.
I’m asked many times by many people
if it is possible for me to just sit back and enjoy movies. When SPY was funny, I laughed. But when I (or the audience) don’t laugh, you
have to find something to pay attention to.
And if the story underneath the comedy is lacking despite the great
first act, your mind tends to wander. And
wondering I was. Wondering just how high
McCarthy’s star can go. Wondering if the
script could have used another rewrite to tighten the humor & the second
half of the movie. Wondering if I am
wrong about this movie.
**1/2
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