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Most spy and espionage movies, with the exception of James Bond, are so overdone and filled with repetitive tropes and clichés that they can be turgid to watch.
That’s why a good old spoof flick that flirts with these themes and ideas while turning them on their head can be so refreshing and hilarious. Following genre classics such as Austin Powers and Johnny English is Spy, and it’s an absolute riot.
As soon as the film begins, you notice there’s something different about this one. It’s undoubtedly silly (very silly, in fact), but there’s a strong message of female empowerment among the lampooning, and the film repeatedly asks appropriate questions. Why should espionage be considered a man’s world? Why should they have all the fun with gadgets and cars?
Of course, the film rarely stops to ponder these questions too deeply, with the queen of profanity and grotesque physical comedy Melissa McCarthy too busy doing daft and outrageous things to wait for an answer. But there is a heart buried deep here.
McCarthy stars as the perennially underestimated Susan Cooper, an unassuming, plus-size CIA agent whose lack of confidence has seen her relegated to a basement where she acts as the eyes and ears to super-spy Bradley Fine (Jude Law) on the field.
However, when Fine becomes indisposed and Bulgarian femme fatale Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne) reveals she knows the identities of all the other prominent super spies in the CIA (including Jason Statham’s Richard Ford), Cooper decides to leave her desk job, go undercover, and finish the mission. Because no one would ever suspect her of being a spy, of course.
A lot of the film’s humour does come from this setup, with Cooper’s larger-than-life figure and her acceptance of her physical conditioning providing a goldmine of set-pieces and wisecracks.
The men wear tuxedos and parade round in various fancy aliases, but she dresses up as ‘the crazy cat lady’, the divorced single mother and the cleaning lady. Her gadgets are in feather dusters and bleach bottles rather than elaborate pens and jetpacks, but it’s a refreshing perspective that plays on the audience’s preconceived notions of what women of a certain age are like.
Fortunately, the male characters are just as good. Fine is the straight character, unaware of the meta-parody going on around him. Law looks the part with his handsome features and mastery of the Queen’s English, although he still retains that old-school chauvinism and suave demeanour that firmly establishes him as the Bond archetype.
But it’s Statham that steals the show with a brilliant performance from the man who, quite frankly, is typecast as the gravelly-voiced hard man. But the way he plays the same character here with hysterical self-awareness, riffing on the tough-guy persona with an admirably straight face, made my stomach hurt from laughing.
Although there’s plenty of comedy, Spy is an action movie after all and it doesn’t disappoint on that front. It features a number of genuinely thrilling sequences such as a plane crash, an epic knife duel and of course the obligatory car chase. All are punctuated by moments of ridiculousness of course, but there’s a surprisingly violent edge to this film, and it definitely isn’t one for the kids.
The story has more twists and turns than a Disneyland attraction, with some genuinely shocking moments that will leave you gasping in disbelief.
Combining a constant stream of laughs with explosive action, Spy is a welcome kick up the backside for an overplayed genre. Featuring great performances and sprinkled with the outrageous, make sure you sneak into your local cinema to catch it.
***
Last week, GulfWeekly asked our readers to name the genetically-created hybrid dinosaur in the new Jurassic World movie for a chance to win a pair of tickets to see the film.
We can announce that the winners are Y.V. Ramana Murty and Anubha Kaushal, who correctly answered c) Indominus Rex. The winners have been notified by email. Enjoy the film which is currently top of the box office hits.
