Spy: Susan Cooper Undercover

While Melissa McCarthy's investigator in "The Heat" was both a fine cop and a sexual dynamo, inspiring many heartbroken men, she has made a thriving career by playing boisterous and irresponsible characters with high-level security clearance.

The actress' abilities are enhanced by Paul Feig's "Spy," which gives her the opportunity to travel the globe as CIA operative Susan Cooper while surprising both those around her and herself. Bradley Fine, a stylish super-spy, is guided through perilous situations by Susan, a ten-year veteran of the organization.

The only CIA agent who can find Rayna DeLuca, who wants to buy a renegade nuclear weapon from the DeLuca family, is Susan. She is given drab undercover identities and gadgets that are disguised as stool softener, toe-fungus spray, and hemorrhoid wipes by her boss despite her proficiency with a headset and computer screen.

Rayna is the subject of Susan's tracking and reporting, but she ends up getting close and personal with her. The scenes between McCarthy and Byrne are brutally funny and full of insult comedy. Feig gives McCarthy a comic foil in the form of Peter Serafinowicz, Jason Statham, and Miranda Hart while also treating the spy narrative seriously enough to keep us interested.

While "Spy" contains more blood and violence than typical espionage films, the humour is never compromised. It serves as a reminder of the peril Susan faces while also demonstrating how cartoonish many modern espionage dramas have turned out to be. The movie "Spy" by McCarthy and Feig stands out because it managed to keep me smiling while simultaneously making me wonder who was actually pulling the strings.

I enjoyed this for some stress-relief. Yes, it is very vulgar quite often. But I adore Miranda Hart, Jude Law is some suave damn eye-candy, Melissa is funny as always and it was nice seeing her take on an action role. Stratham must have needed something as light relief from his usual British crime seriousness; he does idiot well, it turns out. And Rose Byrne was an adorable, lethal, spoilt brat.

Just some fun. Maybe I could have done without male porn bits. That 'thing', I don't know if it was real but it was repulsive. Eww.

Spy is an action comedy starring the versatile and hilarious actress Melissa McCarthy. This movie is an American version of a James Bond movie, with added humor—but not in the manner of movies like Johnny English (2003) or Mordecai (2015). It's not a parody. The movie has a rather serious and complex plot complete with red herrings and twists. I wouldn't say it's completely realistic, but it's just enough to make it very funny without being too outlandish. It reminds me of one of my all time favorite action comedies "True Lies" (1994), where in both films unlikely people are thrust into CIA missions. Susan Cooper (McCartney) is a CIA agent who works as a guide for Bradley Fine (Jude Law). While Fine is doing field work, he is equipped with cameras. Cooper watches these cameras and alerts Fine of oncoming danger. During a mission to stop the transferring of a nuclear bomb, the cameras begin to malfunction, Cooper's images become unclear, and Fine is shot. The CIA chooses to put Cooper on the field to continue Fine's mission. Cooper has been at her desk her entire career, however Cooper is considered a CIA agent and therefore is considered qualified to take on the mission, although she is seemingly far from fit for the job in many ways. Being that Cooper has always worked at a desk, she is completely unknown to the enemies and can thus work well undercover. Having worked with Fine all these years, and having deeper feelings for Fine than even he knew, Cooper feels it is her duty to avenge Fine's death. She sets off to Europe jumping from one crazy circumstance to another. She quickly become more than meets the eye as her quick wit and even physical abilities are unleashed. This is a great comedy filled with witty banter, British satire, slapstick comedy and even some raunchy humor. Stay for the credits—even they're funny.

Spy knows how to put a fun and modern spin on the spy genre in ways the major franchises would struggle to do. The plot is suitably twisty (some predictable & some unexpected) and even though there are occasional gaps between the laughs, it has more than enough to ensure that isn't a major issue.

Melissa McCarthy has been in some subpar comedies but roles like this offer a reminder that she's one of the best at comedy. This role is so different to her previous collaborations with Paul Feig (for the better) and requires a lot since the undercover work means her character is constantly changing.

Jason Statham is the best thing about this and the only downside is that he could be in it a lot more. It's possible he's only this good because he's in small doses to avoid too much of a good thing however, the major takeaway is that Statham is ridiculously gifted at comedy and it's a real crime that he's not utilised it more often.

Paul Feig's direction runs into his usual misstep of letting some scenes overstay their welcome and yet it doesn't derail it, mainly due to the jokes that do land being proper belly laughs. In the action, it's just a little over reliant on slow motion. Also, the music by Theodore Shapiro really nails the generic spy movie score.

In the late 1930s through early 1940s ('38-'40 to be precise), there was a barrage of slick comedies characterized by witty, cheeky, rapid-fire dialogues between characters without so much as a breath between jokes, let alone hold for audience reaction. To me, the pinnacle of this achievement was the pairing of Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, both fast-talking sultans of sarcasm, in films like "Bringing Up Baby", "Holiday" and "The Philadelphia Story". Here, nearly a century later, we revisit that style but ramped up on crack, to the point where, after seeing the movie, I had to google the script to see what I missed while laughing my arse off--and laughing it off all over again.

Let me give you an example. The following exchange between "Ford" (Jason Statham) and "Susan" (Melissa McCarthy) is crammed into the space of probably 10 seconds at most, with Jason firing off his lines like a Chicago Gangster with a cockney accent and Melissa quietly interjecting, unnoticed, barely giving him time to reload before his next strafing.

FORD: You really think you're ready for the field? I once used defibrillators on myself! I put shards of glass in my fn' eye! I've jumped from a high-rise building using only a raincoat as a parachute and broke both legs upon landing; I still had to pretend I was in a fing Cirque du Soleil show! I've swallowed enough microchips and s*** them back out again to make a computer. This arm has been ripped off completely and re-attached ...with THIS fing' arm..!

SUSAN: I don't know that that's possible... I mean medically...

FORD: During the threat of an assassination attempt, I appeared convincingly in front of congress as Barack Obama..!

SUSAN: In blackface? That's not appropriate.

FORD: I watched the woman I love get tossed from a plane ...and hit by another plane mid-air! I drove a car off a freeway on top of a train while it was on fire. Not the car, *I* was on fire..!

SUSAN: Jesus you're intense.

I don't think I need to say much more in my review; if you like that style of banter (not so much banter as jackhammer) comedy, don't miss "Spy". Written and directed by Paul Feig who brought us many episodes of The Office before his big screen breakthrough "Bridesmades" and worthy follow-up "The Heat", here in "Spy" we get the third of his brilliant comedies starring the incomparable Melissa McCarthy. In this case, the script is amped up the most of all with so many hilarious lines that you really have to check out the imdb quotes section afterwards to see what you missed, then watch it again.

The plot? Who cares. Something about spies and nukes and hot Bulgarian villains played by Rose Byrne who really channels her inner Cruella Deville only without the dog skin furs, instead opting to dress, as one character points out, "like a slutty dolphin trainer".

If it's possible, EVERY character steals the show. From Melissa (obviousy) down to the bit part of the villain's blonde male henchman who has only 6 lines (and whom Melissa taunts: "I don't see a man. I see a reject from The Sound of Music.")

So watch this movie while you can. I don't know if witty, snappy, script-driven comedies like this will follow but I'd love to see. In the same way Hepburn/Grant defined the comedic style of the 1940s, or in the same way the Zucker-Abraham-Zucker team defined comedy of the 1980s ("Airplane!", "Top Secret!"), here another 40 years later we get a smart, stylish, characteristic brand of comedy that I think our generation can be proud to laugh hysterically to.