Movie - Spy

Note:  There will be some spoilers throughout, but this is a comedy.  You didn't come for the storyline anyway, right?    

     Spy is a comedy from director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids and The Heat), which stars Melissa McCarthy (also Bridesmaids and The Heat), Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids...wait, is this a Judd Apatow type situation?), Jude Law (uhm...not really much in recent years), and Jason Statham (every action movie that hits the market).  The basic premise of the movie is that it is a spoof (of sorts) of all the other spy movies in the world, such as James Bond and...well, I guess mainly just James Bond.  But Spy isn't just making fun of spy movies like spoofs that have come before (Naked Gun, Airplane, National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon, etc.), instead it just takes the over the top stereotypes and somewhat ridiculous things that are in the normal movies and just takes them one step further.  I felt that every character in the movie was just an exaggerated version of other characters you have seen before, which I will detail a little better below.
     So in the movie, Jude Law plays the James Bond type character.  Super cool, always in the right place at that right time, super spy that can seem to do no wrong.  Even when he sneezes and shoots the man he is trying to get information from in the head, he finds a way to remain cool and still expertly escape without wrinkling his suit. 
     Melissa McCarthy plays basically the stereotype that she has been cast in every film, and that is the overweight and homely secretary that is the voice in Jude Law's ear, giving him all the information he needs to be successful.  I'm not saying that to make it sound bad, because they take that image and exaggerate it throughout the course of the movie to some of the more hilarious moments of the movie (Jude Law: "You look like you have pink eye.  Did you scratch your eye while changing the litter box?"  Melissa McCarthy: "What?  I don't have a cat, why would you think I have a cat?"  Jude Law: "I don't know.  Why would I say that?").
     Rose Byrne just plays a crazy person, who holds up her end of the comedy spectrum when necessary, and also plays the bad guy pretty convincingly when necessary as well.  But she keeps her performance subdued and lets the others do most of the heavy lifting.
     Which brings me to the highlight of the film, and that is Jason Statham.  I have been a fan of Jason Statham since I first saw the movie Snatch, which if you haven't seen, you should go out and watch it right now.  Seriously, go right now...I can wait.  Are you back?  Okay, then I will press on.  Jason Statham has become best known for playing the super serious action star, and he has made quite a living for himself doing so (I feel like he has a new movie come out like every other week).  In this movie, he takes that same tone and demeanor, and then he delivers some of the most ridiculous lines, which really just amplifies the humor in it.  Example: "Nothing kills me. I'm immune to 179 different types of poison. I know because I ingested them all at once when I was deep undercover in an underground poison-ingesting crime ring."
     I personally felt that all the characters were near perfect, and really fit the movie well, but I think the movie really suffered from the storyline itself.  It was never anything flashy, and it was very predictable.  What really kept the movie chugging along was the bevy of one-liners that were strewn throughout the film.  The last half hour of the movie, as it came chugging into the finish line, was really the least appealing part of the whole movie, but they had to sum the story up and so the comedy turned into just a half hour, typical action film.
     But if you can look past the story, there are some really funny moments in the movie.  I'm not the biggest Melissa McCarthy fan in the world, but I do find her to be pretty funny most of the time.  She takes this movie on her back and she carries it as far as she can, and she does a good job.  I felt that she really came into her own about halfway through the movie, when she was trying to convince Rose Byrne's character that she was hired to be her bodyguard, and that was when the best comedic lines came through for her.
     I was never a real fan of Bridesmaids, and I liked The Heat rather well, but I feel that Spy fell somewhere in between the two movies.  I would watch the movie again, just to see the scenes with both Melissa McCarthy and Jason Statham in them, as I felt that these two had some really good chemistry, and their styles complemented the other one very well.  I felt that the storyline was forgettable, but I imagine that I will take several of the one-liners from the movie and add them into my repertoire where applicable.  Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy will be teaming up again to make the reboot of Ghostbusters, and seeing both the comedic performance, and also the action performance, by Melissa McCarthy in Spy leaves me with some high hopes that they will do that franchise the justice it deserves.

My rating for Spy is 7/10