Melissa McCarthy’s latest movie Spy is a treat.
Director Paul Feig graduated McCarthy from supporting player in 2011’s Bridesmaids, to co-star in 2013’s The Heat and now, badass leading lady in Spy.
The comedic sendup of the classic James Bond formula goes back at least as far as the original 1967 Casino Royale and Get Smart but also was reinvented in the ‘90s by Mike Myers in Austin Powers.
Gadgets, plane fights, prat falls and cat-lady sweaters are what populates Spy.
Next year, Feig will take McCarthy into her next showbiz tier with Ghostbusters, where she’ll get her doctorate in ‘ensemble cast’.
Susan Cooper is a CIA Agent, working as an assistant to field agent Bradley Fine (Jude Law). She witnesses Fine’s brutal murder via a very unrealistic ‘contact lens camera’ as she’s guiding him through his final mission.
When the CIA is made aware of a possible leak, the only thing left to do is send someone after his murderer Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne). Hothead agent Rick Ford played by Jason Statham is a braggart and bumbling parody of the usual roles the actor plays.
Ford goes rogue when the agency picks the unassuming analyst Susan Cooper to go out into the field to Paris to gather intel on that “Thundercunt” Rayna, her bosses and a nuclear bomb!
McCarthy’s boss Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney, uncredited) sends Agent Cooper out with a series of more hilarious than the last identities, the first being a mother of four from the Midwest with a Christmas sweater.
On the plus side, Cooper is sent to the munitions garage to see Patrick (Michael McDonald – aka a Red Shirt in every Austin Powers movie!), only to be handed some cool spy gear in rather unassuming packages. We’re not talking a spy-pen. What we are talking about is poison antidote disguised as stool softener and a toe fungus spray that’s actually mace. This is one of the funnest tropes in any spy movie, and Feig and the writers did it right. It was more about what she didn’t get what she wanted but other spies have access to that cranked up the hilarity.
When Cooper arrives in Paris at an unkempt hotel, she finds Ford there, waiting in the dark á la Nick Fury in Captain America: Winter Soldier. Ford is disobeying orders and circumventing CIA protocol as he has no faith in her carrying out the mission. Spoiler warning, the two don’t take to long to team up and save the day.
Just when you think that this is a straight comedy, we’re put in the middle of a bomb threat at an outdoor concert with Ford and Cooper eliminate the threat. This sparks one of the best fight scenes in the film with Cooper and the bomber facing off at the edge of a building. Let’s just say that you have every reason to fear the awesome power of rebar.
Rome is the next destination, and Cooper tires quickly of the disguises she’s given, this time, crazy cat lady! She treats herself to a cocktail dress and heads after her next target, Sergio De Luca (Bobby Cannavale) in a casino. Ford shows up again in his Bond tux, working the same angle, though unofficially. Silicon Valley actor Zach Woods makes a cameo that ends up uniting Cooper with her original target Rayna —all while retaining her cover.
Rayna and Cooper have a dinner scene that rivals the Kristen Wiig maid of honor microphone passing speech in Bridesmaids (or the Jordan Almonds showdown!). Watching Byrne’s air of superiority match McCarthy’s home-grown real-person defenses is awesome and some of the best laughs in the film.
After dinner, and Rayna gaining Cooper’s trust — they head out on Rayna’s private jet. What starts as a cocktail hour ends up with a bloody confrontation with the crew.
McCarthy not only shines with hilarious dialogue, she holds her own as a fighter in this movie. They give her (or her double, I should say) many Matrix-esque kick flips and figure eights. I really liked that about the movie — and that there weren’t any cheap fat jokes.
The kitchen fight scene McCarthy gets to do rivals only Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past (you know, but this time without time slowing down). Butcher knives are flying, good old konks on on the head with skillets. What more could you want? Maybe a Three Stooges eye poke would have been going too far, and they exercised restraint in that regard.
Another fine actor we haven’t mentioned in this film is Miranda Hart, playing the desk agent and best friend to Cooper as Nancy B. Artingstall. When Nancy is brought into the field, she is definitely out of her element. Nancy is the kind of best bud sidekick you need as a tool for exposition. Nancy is the one monitoring Cooper’s (still ridiculous) contact lens cam.
In the final act of the film, there is also some helicopter action to balance out the plane fight. Helicopters always make me think of Bond films so this is thematically on point. De Luca and Rayna are exposed while the CIA team reassembles.
Spy is a great and fun summer movie. Treat yourself to the credits and let your imagination go wild on possible future missions for the team, as well as a surprising post-credit scene.
Melissa McCarthy hasn’t made a movie that I didn’t like, but this one was another comedy classic like Bridesmaids. Let’s see Feig top this one with Ghostbusters!
