Spy Film Review

Melissa McCarthy is back in her strongest role since Bridesmaids, in a James Bond meets Austin Powers comedy masterpiece.

Oscar-nominated Melissa McCarthy returns to the big screen for an action-packed mission, which sees her reunited with director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat). McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, a deskbound CIA agent who guides the agency’s top spies on their assignments via an earpiece.

One such agent, a James Bond wannabe, Bradley Fine (Jude Law) relies a little too much on Cooper’s guidance to defeat the bad guys and ends up being killed during a mission to take down a Bulgarian villain.

The Villain’s bitchy daughter, Rayna (Rose Byrne) claims to know all of the faces of the current CIA agents (including Rick Ford, played by Jason Statham) so, to cut a long story short, the agency realise they need an unknown to finish the job. Enter McCarthy with some hilarious undercover personas and a whole host of ridiculous outfits.

Spy is commendable for so many reasons, but one of the main is Paul Feig’s brilliant casting choices. The pairings in the film are all very much on point. McCarthy and Jude Law work well together and McCarthy and Jason Statham have some of the funniest scenes. In fact, Statham who plays a piss-take version of his typical laddish role is great in the film. Feig made his character resemble lie and exaggerate everything when telling a story. We couldn’t help but we a connection between his character and Jay from The Inbetweeners.

Whilst Statham gave a creditable performance, our favourite combination by far was McCarthy and Rose Byrne. Their on-screen chemistry provides viewers with non-stops laughs. It’s no surprise they would work well together, after the sheer success of Bridesmaids, director Paul Fieg was right to pair these two together.

Even though we absolutely loved the film, it wasn’t without faults. For example, there was one pairing that did not work at all, McCarthy and her sidekick in crime, Miranda Hart. Hart essentially plays the character we all know very well from the television show, Miranda. Whether it is a case of poorly written, extremely cringe-worthy lines, or her lack of comical timing, her character adds nothing to the film. Alongside this, the 50 Cent cameo isn’t as funny at the movie thinks it is, in fact we weren’t entirely sure why they decided to include him at all.

Nonetheless, apart from a few poor character choices, the film is a laugh-a-minute action-packed two hour success. Following the utter flop last summer in McCarthy’s leading role as Tammy, finally Paul Feig has provided her with a film that is almost as brilliant as Bridesmaids. Spy will no doubt be the funniest female-led comedy film released this year.

Spy is released in the UK on June 5.
Our rating: 4 ½ stars

Watch the trailer here

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