Spy (2015)

"As soon as I saw you in that abortion of a dress, as if to say this is what I've got, world. It's hideous, but it's mine." Rayna Boyanov

"I mean, you may never be as wise as an owl, but you'll always be a hoot to me." -Susan Cooper

So, Spy is actually pretty good. Its insults are vulgar, its comedy is reasonably well timed, the cast is delightful. I could go into some negative points, but why? If you want to laugh a good bit to a comedic spy-thriller with a twist. Go for it. I want to talk about something else.

I've noticed a trend that when an actor makes it big, (comedian, dramatic, romantic..whatever), there is just this push that they must make an action movie. I bet studio execs call it the gun test. "Can (insert name of new star) carry a gun and pull it off?" If they can, they are a bankable star.  If they cannot, their future is more limited. My hunch is that this has something to do with the push away from comedy and drama towards action as it translates better to foreign markets. Chinese movie goers might not get American jokes or love, but they do understand explosions and guns.  As a single point of evidence for my thought, I consider that all of the movies for Melissa McCarthy post Bridesmaids have been gun related: Tammy, The Heat, and now Spy. (Emily Blunt is falling into this category, too.) Melissa has proven that she can carry a gun. I expect that we will see her in more action based films from here on out.  It's strange to think of violent movies as the one thing we all understand around the world...but that seems to be the way of it.

On a scale of a pink sweatshirt wearing Iowan with 3 cats on her first trip to Paris to a red dress wearing Parisian with 3 poodles on her first trip to Iowa, I give Spy 2.8 out of 5 stars.