Review of Spy (2015) by Filmphonic — 05 Jun 2015

‘Spy’ marks the third comedy collaboration between writer/director Paul Feig and star Melissa McCarthy in a thus far successful quest to “feminize” movie sub-genres having created a female ‘The Hangover’ with ‘Bridesmaids’ and transformed the traditionally male “buddy-cop” comedy with ‘The Heat’.

It’s clear from the trailer alone that this film is a broad action/comedy which mixes slapstick and gross-out humour with a fish-out-of-water element within somewhat of a parody, but quite cleverly it’s the clichés in traditional Spy films and their parodies that are being attacked here.

Feig does a commendable job of subverting the traditional Spy movie by presenting most of the male characters as testosterone-fueled or sex-obsessed simpletons, a fact that us men can hardly complain about given the years of women being depicted as either sex objects or maliciously vindictive sirens in these kind of films.

‘Spy’ has some real genuine belly-laughs and works because of Feig’s sharp, witty and often coarse dialogue expertly delivered through Melissa McCarthy’s lead performance, the rest of the cast do an adequate job with only one character being at best surplus to requirements and at worst downright annoying, but unlike ‘Austin Powers’ this film in not much beyond a silly and outrageous comedy vehicle and introduces no unforgettable characters that we’ll be talking about for years to come, not to mention being about 30 minutes too long.

The Bottom Line….

Broad and silly without threatening to become a comedy classic, ‘Spy’ is nevertheless highly entertaining thanks to Melissa McCarthy’s lead performance and a mix of crude & sharp dialogue with outrageous physical comedy, a welcome addition to a sub-genre lacking in genuine “classics”.