Better late than never, Alabama Liberal…
What Works: This is my favorite of Melissa McCarthy’s star vehicles, and is the first of her pairings with director Paul Feig that feels like more than a series of loosely improvised “scenes.” Although McCarthy has been on box-office-fire from her breakthrough forward, her genre riffs have had mixed results creatively: she’s been in a buddy cop movie (The Heat), a buddy road movie (Identity Thief), and a finding yourself road comedy (Tammy).
But here she’s taken something that could have been unbearable (“imagine James Bond as a fat lady”) and smartly avoided making the Big Momma’s House of spy thrillers. Instead, “Spy” is a feminist spy movie unlike anything I’ve ever really seen before. It also smartly tweaks McCarthy’s brand by having her start off as an introvert who has to get more hardcore the further undercover she goes–rather than having her start out as a nut from scene 1 like every other movie she’s been in. It’s a lot like Will Ferrell’s “The Other Guys” a sly genre parody where we get to see a “wild and crazy” star start off as a mild-mannered regular person who becomes crazy, and is all the funnier because of it.
What Doesn’t: It’s funny to have Jason Statham’s more macho spy be a fumbling idiot, but what about the climax of the movie? I’m talking specifically about a scene where McCarthy beats up five well armed henchmen while two male spies pretty much offer no assistance. At a certain point, the gender tweaking strains credibility as we watch McCarthy do some pretty incredible physical feats while the more athletic male characters are entirely useless.
What I Would Have Done Differently: I’ve never thought Paul Feig really understands how to direct comedy–his scenes run too long, too loose, and too visually flat–so even though this is my favorite film of his, it makes you wonder how much better it might have been with a different director.