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SPY
Paul Feig and his muse Melissa McCarthy have proven they can deliver solid screen comedy with films like Bridesmaids and The Heat and have now shown what they can deliver with what appears to be an unlimited budget with the 2015 comic adventure Spy.
This expensive and ambitious James Bond spoof stars McCarthy as a CIA agent who works as a computer tech aiding a field agent (Jude Law) who gets the opportunity to go into the field herself to complete a mission that resulted in the death of her field partner.
Director and screenwriter Paul Feig has clearly seen his quota of James Bond films and knows the genre intimately, creating a dead on valentine to those films with just the right of tongue in cheek sensibility to the screenplay and complete confidence in his leading lady to sell a story that stretches credibility at every turn but we forgive and go with it because McCarthy has such a commanding screen presence. Her work in dominating a comic adventure rivals Murray in Ghostbusters and Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop, but there's no denying that the movie goes on forever.
There's money everywhere here...there some beautiful location filming in Paris, Rome, and Budapest and Feig has put proper attention into cinematography, film editing, not to mention some really offbeat casting choices, some work better than others...really didn't care for Rose Byrne as the evil femme fatale, but loved, loved, loved, loved Jason Statham in an on-target spoofing of his onscreen persona as a fellow agent of McCarthy's whose ego and insecurity about being passed over for this assignment don't stop him from staying right in the middle of it.
With a little tightening of the screenplay and some re-thinking of the supporting cast, this film could have been something on the scale of the above mentioned classics, but as is, McCarthy almost makes you believe everything going on, though you will be checking your watch.
Paul Feig and his muse Melissa McCarthy have proven they can deliver solid screen comedy with films like Bridesmaids and The Heat and have now shown what they can deliver with what appears to be an unlimited budget with the 2015 comic adventure Spy.
This expensive and ambitious James Bond spoof stars McCarthy as a CIA agent who works as a computer tech aiding a field agent (Jude Law) who gets the opportunity to go into the field herself to complete a mission that resulted in the death of her field partner.
Director and screenwriter Paul Feig has clearly seen his quota of James Bond films and knows the genre intimately, creating a dead on valentine to those films with just the right of tongue in cheek sensibility to the screenplay and complete confidence in his leading lady to sell a story that stretches credibility at every turn but we forgive and go with it because McCarthy has such a commanding screen presence. Her work in dominating a comic adventure rivals Murray in Ghostbusters and Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop, but there's no denying that the movie goes on forever.
There's money everywhere here...there some beautiful location filming in Paris, Rome, and Budapest and Feig has put proper attention into cinematography, film editing, not to mention some really offbeat casting choices, some work better than others...really didn't care for Rose Byrne as the evil femme fatale, but loved, loved, loved, loved Jason Statham in an on-target spoofing of his onscreen persona as a fellow agent of McCarthy's whose ego and insecurity about being passed over for this assignment don't stop him from staying right in the middle of it.
With a little tightening of the screenplay and some re-thinking of the supporting cast, this film could have been something on the scale of the above mentioned classics, but as is, McCarthy almost makes you believe everything going on, though you will be checking your watch.