As a writer, you are always looking for your muse. The same goes for a filmmaker, I mean Woody Allen seems to have a different one every few years (Which I us comes with making a movie every year). Just like peanut butter and jelly, some things just go together, names like Scott and Crowe, or Depp and Burton, and Ford and Wayne. Well there is a new tag team that is making its way up the list, and while they have had more misses than solid movies, the team of Feig and McCarthy are on quite a roll. After surprising everyone with the hit “Bridesmaids”, the pair reteamed for the not nearly as funny but financially successful “The Heat”, so we can only hope that they are on every other movie.
For their third film together we get “Spy” and I have got good news, but I will get to that later. Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) is living the life as an elite spy. Its too bad she is living it as the eyes and ears of super spy Bradley Fine (Jude Law). You see Susan sits behind a computer screen and helps Fine make it through his missions unharmed. When Fine and the rest of the agencies assistants are compromised, Cooper volunteers herself for the mission to follow Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne) as she tries to sell a weapon of mass destruction. While Cooper looks like the cat lady who lives next door to you, she is actually a fighting machine, and through skill and quite a bit of luck, Cooper is faced with a mission that she can only complete.
I bet you are wondering what that good news that I was talking about earlier was, well it’s not time yet. Spy movies have always lend themselves to be turned into a comedy, the trick is the cast. That is where “Spy” shines, as Law and Cannavale and the guy who steals every scene he is in, Jason Statham join Byrne. As for McCarthy, I have always thought she is best in small doses, as her “act” can wear thin the longer she is on screen. While “Spy” would have been better about a half an hour shorter, McCarthy, actually tones it down some, but without losing any of the funny. I hope McCarthy and Feig make more films like this, but I worry their next project might bring back the bad, either way, they found the right formula with this film. As good as McCarthy is at not being annoying, Statham, in his best roll since “Snatch” is perfect as the hot headed spy, who is like every other Statham character, the difference this time he is playing it for laughs. I didn’t know what I was going to think about this film, but over the last few weeks, I had a good feeling about what this movie could be. Well the good news is ‘yes’, “Spy” is a fun movie, and one worth seeing. Sometimes when you find your muse, you just have to create, and take the good with the bad. With “Spy” McCarthy and Feig give us lots of good, and that is good for us all.
Brian Taylor
