Spy Review

Spy is the new movie that reunites Melissa McCarthy and Paul Feig, writer and director of the 2011 smash hit Bridesmaids. It's movies like this that continue to give me hope for the future of the movie industry, which has become so dull and repetitive. Ladies and gents, this movie was flat out hilarious and is one of the more pleasant surprises of 2015 so far. I went in with a certain expectation, as I had read many reviews stating that the movie was a great surprise and an interesting break from the normal role that Melissa McCarthy plays. I'm happy to report that all of these assessments are incredibly accurate. Bluntly put, I laughed my butt off during this movie. The smart, witty humor is a wonderful take on the spy genre, with many homages paid to the James Bond franchise. In the movie, McCarthy plays a successful desk analyst who has to step out of her comfort zone and go into the field. Along the way, she meets a gleefully crass and goofy cast of characters, all of them playing up different archetypical characters from the espionage genre. Without a doubt, Jason Statham was the best part of this movie. He is essentially spoofing every role he has ever played, and my gut was busting every second he was on screen. While I enjoyed his character the most, it is important to note that this role is one that shows us a fresh side of Melissa McCarthy, which couldn't have come at a better time. Her character is one that clearly isn't battle tested, but isn't a complete dope/idiot like we have seen in her other movies like Identity Thief or Tammy. She is a real human with real emotions and a great sense of humor. This is probably McCarthy's best role to date, at least of the ones that I have seen her play. She's so incredibly likable and funny that it gives you somebody to really connect with and root for amongst all the gags and action sequences that pack the screen. The other star of the movie is actually director Paul Feig. His writing and directing is really spot on here, with the laughs coming every minute and the action scenes being well filmed and choreographed. This movie, in a way, serves as a good indicator for the type of movie we can hope to see when Feig and McCarthy return next year in the Ghostbusters reboot. Feig shows a clear love for the spy genre in this film, as his humor hits on all the tropes of that genre without becoming a real spoof, which is kind of interesting to me. Honestly, I find it very hard to review comedies, because I judge them on whether I laughed or not. Based on that, Spy was a great movie. I was laughing for pretty much the whole movie, in addition to quoting the movie with my friends as soon as it was over. That being said, the movie didn't really break any new ground, but in this case, that's quite alright. It was a wonderful surprise and a great part of the summer movie season. If I had to nitpick the movie at all, it would be that I wanted to see more of Statham's character and that the movie was a bit too long. Overall though, Spy was a great time at the movies and I highly recommend that you go see it. We all need time to just relax, turn our brain off, and laugh away. Spy gets a 7.5/10.