“Spy” went above and beyond our expectations.
Written and directed by Paul Feig, the film stars Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jude Law, Jason Statham and Bobby Cannavale, who all play spies and evil villains; and above all, hilarious roles. Feig recently worked with McCarthy on The Heat and Bridesmaids and will make the new Ghostbusters film with her as well. And it seems as if their partnership has officially taken off in Spy, the first film McCarthy stars in which Feig wrote, making us all the more excited for Feig’s second written work with not only McCarthy, but also Leslie Jones, Kirsten Wiig, and Kate McKinnon (Ghostbusters).
The film has the hilarious McCarthy playing Susan Cooper, a CIA analyst who sits at her desk and communicates directions to field spy Bradley Fine (Law). Trouble arises when Fine finds himself trapped by Rayna Boyanov (Byrne), the daughter of an evil villain who was previously killed by Bradley Fine and is looking for retribution. She endangers the safety of the CIA’s top spies, including Rick Ford (Statham), who decides to go rogue over a discourse with CIA director Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney). After all of the top spies have been compromised, Cooper decides to go out into the field undetected (as she works a desk job and Boyanov does not know her identity) and stop Boyanov from meeting with Sergio De Luca (Cannavale), who are both trying to get a radioactive bomb detonated in New York City.
Just reading that, it sounds like James Bond 26. Or actually, James Bond 1-25. But don’t forget, this is a comedy. Now isn’t this something you want to see?
I honestly couldn’t stop laughing over this film, even days after I saw it. The comedy was there, there’s no worry about that, but the film itself is so aesthetically appealing and well plotted that it makes it the perfect comedy film to watch. Scenes are shot right out of James Bond films themselves, working perfectly with the Hungary scene locations. The scenes alone were right out of a traveler’s bucket list; locations so majestic they looked fake, but they didn’t overpower the film in which one still remembered there was a spy mission going on, but hysterically at that. Feig’s use of background really cannot be described in words, so I’ll try my best movie reference. Remember that scene when Tom Cruise is climbing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqocrvv26eo) the Burj Khalifa building and you can view as far as the curvature of the earth? And remember how Simon Pegg made a few funny quirks, but nothing more than a snicker? Well imagine that scene with that kind of action/spy tension, but with a hundred more times the hilarity. If that’s not reason enough to watch the film, I don’t know what is.
The plot is reason enough to watch the film. Feig is a true genius when it comes to writing comedy, and we can take his feature film comedy writing debut as a good sign for the next movies to come. Every line is said with such enthusiasm and meaning that there’s always a slight leading up for something to come. Even when there’s no sense to a line, especially those of Statham’s character bragging about his accomplishments, it provides for the utmost logic to laugh and laugh for a while. Every scene and every character is built so well that they have back stories and can probably name you what they had for breakfast, of course, in the roles of their character. (I can imagine it now- Cooper saying she had a cupcake; Boyanov saying caviar; Ford saying a protein shake made of snake venom).
Spy was the perfect mix of slap stick humor with sarcastic and dry-witted quips. Somehow, without degrading itself to equal the films of a lesser quality, Feig even makes horrific crimes seem hilarious. It’s a definite must watch, no doubt. I’m considering going out again and watching it this weekend, as it was so funny I keep replaying key scenes over and over. My only peeve? Believe it or not, it was a bit loud. Maybe I’m getting a bit too old, but the action scenes (and Feig does great with playing with suspense and the unexpected) were full of explosions and gun shots that level the sounds of a Michael Bay film, but nonetheless, still entertaining and funny. And trust me, the two hour runtime seemed like a lot for the film going in, but as soon as it starts, you’re immediately transported into the spy crime comedy.
-Catherina Gioino