Der Spion von nebenan 2

The Eternal City (2024) attempts to blend comedy, action, and espionage in the picturesque setting of Rome, but struggles to recapture the charm of its predecessor. While Dave Bautista delivers his usual mix of gruffness and humor, the film's predictable plot and over-reliance on recycled jokes leave much to be desired.

The action sequences are decent, and the Roman backdrop adds some visual appeal, but the story feels formulaic and lacks the emotional core that made the first installment enjoyable. The supporting cast provides some laughs, but the humor often feels forced and uneven.

Overall, My Spy: The Eternal City is a passable but forgettable sequel that fails to elevate the franchise.

We're back with CIA treetrunk JJ and his little girl Sophie. Stuff happens that means they have to go to Italy, and so the movie can happen they get mixed up in a dastardly plot. Bwah ha ha and all that.

This sequel hits all the beats you'd expect, with decent action and enough laughs to keep you watching. It's full of clichés, like a bad guy pausing before striking a fatal blow then being taken out by a third party, or the hero looking beaten but suddenly becoming invincible when the bad guy gets them angry.

The acting is OK, with the two leads slipping easily back into their characters aided by nice turns from Ken Jeong and Kristen Schaal.

If you liked the first you'll like this.

The first movie ends with the characters having respect for each other and yet this one starts with Sophie being the overdone teen. Why do so many sequels have to reset any character development that happened in the prior movie? And why are so many characters in movies now one dimensional?

The first movie had charm, humor and likable characters. This one seems to be missing those. A lot of the performances feel like they are cold reading the lines rather than shooting the actual movie.

I'm curious how many of the positive reviews are from people that spent much of the movie looking at their phone. It may not be a bad 'background' movie.

This the most absurd but I expected it to be this funny and unserious to what actually is happening, in instance of them being tangled in chain above and try to make a joke about password and 2FA, it didn't land how they expected it to be. And the protagonist asks a lot of money or else the will destroy all of the places in the world which is kind of "will never happen" moment because you just know there isn't any unique to the pot like twist coming up. But it is fun to watch if you think 14 years old is going to save the CiA mistake even though she still can't even drive a car. I gave it 4/10 for the fun moments but it is trash.

Honestly, what I enjoyed the most were the parts of the soundtrack that featured the La Cañada High School Chamber Singers. Their sound was impeccable and the 3 songs fit the (supposed) venue of the Vatican, although the recordings had obviously been made under indoor conditions with a professional sound set up, maybe in a recording studio.

The plot was essentially all the expected tropes, and the dialogue was boring. We watched the typical car crashes. Is that what they spend the budget on? Buying up the vehicles they need for the chase scenes? Oh, well. It kept my occupied while I ate my pizza.