Saturday, June 20, 2015

Spy



Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 19th June, 2015
Time : 120 minutes
Director, Writer : Paul Feig; Music : Theodore Shapiro
Starring : Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, Jason Statham, Miranda Hart, Peter Serafinowicz, Richard Brake, Nargis Fakhri, 50 Cent, Allison Janney




Lots of crude and crass humour, about a fifth of which is bleeped out and only a tenth makes you smile. Ludicrous situations. And the older-Bond-style villains, the type who’re happier to chit-chat than actually kill.


Melissa moves from being CIA agent Jude Law’s voice, eyes and ears – basically his assistant and researcher – to being an agent on her own, thanks to a certain set of circumstances. Her brief is to track and report Bobby Cannavale, in the hope he will lead them to Rose Byrne, who in turn would lead them to a missing, hot, portable nuke which is in the process of being auctioned to the highest bidder, and likely to enter USA.


Of course, Melissa is not going to be content just reporting – but will get into the thick of action, aided by her assistant, the bumbling, lanky Miranda…


The million dollar question is why did Jason Statham take up a terrible role as a highly strung out, competitive CIA agent ? Nargis Fakhri has a minute part in the film – a comical action sequence she gets to join but not much else (doesn’t even make the opening credits). The worst was reserved for Peter Serafinowicz, who got the part of a sex-crazed Italian agency resource, who uses every opportunity to grope Melissa…



The makers here seemed to be struggling with the question of whether to make this a spoof (along the lines of Johnny English, Spy Hard) or to try to keep it real. Currently, it just kind of fell through the cracks

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