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 Spy (2015)

Written by Caleb Madden

Who doesn’t love a good spy movie? For my money, spy movies have the most varied lifetime of any film genre. What I mean by that is there are so many different types and calibers of spy movies. Of course, I love spy comedies because I think there is nothing funnier than watching an over funded, over trained idiot save the day. My movie this week is no exception. Today we are talking about Spy.

Melissa McWho?

The 2015 film Spy follows Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) , a desk agent for some domestic spy organization. Of course she doesn’t stay a desk agent for long after the spy she is in charge of handling is murdered and the database of all the secret identities is released. Susan is the only agent that is unknown enough for her to not be killed on the spot so she becomes a field agent. 

The plot of Spy is pretty straight forward. It’s the classic fish out of water storyline that is always so fun. But what makes Spy so damn good is that it is wildly funny from front to back. I feel like the reception to this movie when it originally came out was relatively negative. Perhaps the tropes present here felt a little played, but I would encourage you to give this a rewatch because it is just a solid fast ball of a comedy. Let's quickly talk about what I love.

Support My Cast

The first wonderful thing about this movie is the ensemble that makes up the supporting cast. Jude Law plays the hero spy (and after watching his performance you will want him as a classic James Bond). Rose Byrne is the uppity villain. Miranda Hart plays Susan Cooper's work best friend and is giving nothing but heaters of line delivery. And one of my favorites is Peter Serafinowicz as the horned up Italian operative. I genuinely think his character will have sex with anything in this film and it's wildly funny. All of these pieces come together to create a movie that barely gives you a second to breathe between the gags.

I Love Cats!

The supporting cast is great and all but who really sings is Melissa McCarthy. I have never really understood why so many people seem to think Melissa is not funny. I think she is one of the best comedic actors to come out of modern SNL. I do get the fatigue that we faced in the mid-2010s where it felt like every other movie was a McCarthy vehicle. Nevertheless I would really love to see her make a strong come back because she is so good at owning her type and playing against it. McCarthy’s performance in this movie is so locked in. She never phones it in or rolls over. Unlike her male counterpart in a similar movie, Get Smart, it feels like McCarthy knows exactly where the pocket is and lives there for the entire runtime. I don’t know just go watch this movie. It’s fun!

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