It seems that 2015 is turning into the Year of the Spy Film! It is possible we haven't had such genre saturation since the spy genre heydays of the 1960s. And I'm loving it!
So far I count six movies, in no particular order: 'SPECTRE' (top of my list of course); 'Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation'; 'Kingsman: The Secret Service'; 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'; 'Spooks: The Greater Good'; and now 'Spy'. (Apparently a declarative title followed by an enigmatic byline is popular in spy film titles these days).
While Kingsman and The Man from UNCLE are both firmly placed in a comedy-action vein, and SPECTRE (based on internet speculation) and MI:5 (based on Ghost Protocol) are expected to have some dashings of humour throughout the film, Spy is the only one representing strict play-it-for-laughs slapstick farce.
I caught the preview for this one last night when I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road. While I don't really go for this type of Deuce Bigalow/Dumb & Dumber idiot comedy, the underlying premise for the film probably isn't too bad:
"Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) is an unassuming, desk-bound CIA analyst, and unsung hero behind the agency's most dangerous missions. But when her partner Bradley Fine (Jude Law) falls off the grid and top agent Rick Ford (Jason Statham) is compromised, Cooper volunteers to go deep undercover to infiltrate the world of deadly arms dealer Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne), and prevent a global disaster."
The cast is pretty good and the Director Paul Feig has decent films behind him like Bridesmaids and also has the Ghostbusters reboot on the horison. Unfortunatelty, the conception and execution of this movie looks deeply flawed and, I suspect, is likely to result in a very unpleasant and unenjoyable viewing experience for many.
Here is the preview for you to form you own judgement:
https://www.youtube....h?v=YrY3v1eDmQY
We possibly haven't seen something this bad since 2002's Eddie Murphy/Owen Wilson vehicle 'I Spy', winner of the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple/Ensemble. But maybe I'm completely wrong.
Cheers all,
Emrayfo