{"id":6985,"date":"2024-10-25T11:35:23","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6985"},"modified":"2024-10-25T11:35:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:35:23","slug":"my-spy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/25\/my-spy\/","title":{"rendered":"My Spy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"My Spy<\/strong> (2020)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 STX\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (action violence, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Segal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jon and Erich Hoeber\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dominic Lewis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Larry Blanford\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 17, 2020 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dave Bautista, Chloe Coleman, Kristen Schaal, Parisa Fitz-Henley, Ken Jeong, Greg Bryk, Nicola Correia-Damude, Devere Rogers, Noah Danby, Olivia Depatie, Keller Viaene.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A (went straight to streaming due to COVID)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Thanks to COVID-19, the movie schedule is devoid of new releases for the foreseeable future. It doesn\u2019t really matter since all US theaters are closed until further notice anyway. Thankfully, a few of the titles originally slated to open in the coming weeks will make their debut on digital platforms instead. This is how I came to see My Spy<\/strong>, an action-comedy that\u2019s been bouncing around on the calendar since last summer. That\u2019s never a good sign. I wasn\u2019t sure it would ever come out, but here we are. Although formulaic, this tough guy-meets-cute kid comedy is entertaining and enjoyable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Former pro-wrestler Dave Bautista, better known these days as Drax the Destroyer in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, plays JJ, a CIA operative better at creating mayhem than gathering intelligence. When his latest mission ends in a massacre, he\u2019s sent to Chicago to conduct surveillance on single mom Kate (Henley, Fantasy Island) and her nine-year-old daughter Sophie (Coleman, Big Little Lies) on the off-chance they\u2019re contacted by the kid\u2019s uncle, international terrorist Marquez (Bryk, TV\u2019s Frontier). He\u2019s after that reliable, time-honored plot device, the McGuffin. It doesn\u2019t really matter what it is; all that\u2019s important is that it\u2019s dangerous in the wrong hands.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Like many a movie tough guy before him, JJ is a lone wolf. He prefers to work alone so he doesn\u2019t have to get close to anybody. That\u2019s been a problem since something bad happened to him while he was in Special Forces. He makes it clear to Bobbi (Schaal, Bob\u2019s Burgers), the mousy tech assigned to work with him, he doesn\u2019t consider her his partner. Sophie, who lived in France until her father died (at her uncle\u2019s hands), is also a loner, but not by choice. The other kids in her fourth grade class, a group of girls in particular, bully her. She has no friends and her mom works a lot; consequently, she\u2019s on her own most of the time. That\u2019s when she figures out she\u2019s being watched.<\/p>\n

\u00a0JJ is about to face his toughest assignment yet, dealing with the nine-year-old girl threatening to blow his cover unless he (1) acts as surrogate dad and (2) teaches her the tricks of the spy trade. The former involves taking her ice skating and attending \u201cParents and Special Friends Day\u201d at her school. The latter entails JJ teaching Sophie skills like lie detection, gaining entry to strangers\u2019 apartments and walking away from an explosion without looking back. Of course, the kid turns out to be a natural at the spy game. Along the way, the two lonely souls begin to bond.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You may have noticed that My Spy<\/strong> is markedly similar to Kindergarten Cop, the quintessential tough guy\/cute kid comedy starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and a lot of cute kids. It worked because Ah-nuld playing it straight in a comedy is funnier than a comedic actor like Eddie Murphy would be playing the same role for laughs. HOWEVER, for every success like Schwarzenegger, there\u2019s a failure like Hulk Hogan in the horrific Mr. Nanny. So how does Bautista rate? You know what, he\u2019s a pretty funny guy when he plays it straight. Whether he\u2019s shaking kids out of a tree during a game of hide and seek or quoting Notting Hill to a bad guy before unleashing hell, he keeps it fun without going all jokey. He has a good foil in Coleman playing a smart kid with a better handle on… well, a number of things. While he teaches her to be a spy, she teaches JJ to be human. Coleman is a little charmer with personality and attitude to spare. This role is perfect for her. Director Peter Segal (Tommy Boy) gives her plenty to do including playing matchmaker to JJ and her mother. Like many things in My Spy<\/strong>, it plays out in predictable fashion.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Schaal has a few good scenes as Bobbi, the level-headed half of the (non)partnership who keeps warning JJ about crossing lines and not getting in any deeper with the family they\u2019re supposed to be watching. She gets off a real zinger in one scene when observing JJ hitting the dance floor with Kate on their first date. She comments that it looks like the wedding at the end of Shrek while she looks on in horror.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The good news is that My Spy<\/strong> is funny (mostly) even if it never strays from formula. Segal focuses more on the tough guy\/cute kid story than the generic action plot with the usual fights, chases and explosions. Of course, the bad guy kidnaps Sophie in the climax and JJ must ride to the rescue. We\u2019ve seen it all before and we\u2019ll see it all again. As for the here and now, My Spy<\/strong> makes it all work. It helps a lot that Bautista and Coleman have great chemistry; they make a winning pair. Sure, not every joke lands like the one about the dropped gun firing wildly as it tumbles down a set of stairs. I could have done without the vomit gag too. But at least Segal doesn\u2019t resort to cheap laughs about the implications of hidden cameras in the bedroom and bathroom of a tween girl.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can\u2019t speak to how My Spy<\/strong> would have done at the box office if not for the COVID-19 crisis. It was marketed as a family movie even though it\u2019s rated PG-13 (for language and action-style violence). To be honest, it\u2019s really no worse than some of the PG movies from back in the day especially the ones predating the PG-13 rating. It\u2019s rather harmless actually. It\u2019s also fun. It\u2019s ideal viewing for the scary times we\u2019re living in right now. Perhaps laughter is indeed the best medicine.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Spy (2020)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 STX\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (action violence, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Segal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jon and Erich Hoeber\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dominic Lewis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Larry Blanford\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 17, 2020 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dave Bautista, Chloe Coleman, Kristen Schaal, Parisa Fitz-Henley, Ken Jeong, Greg Bryk, Nicola Correia-Damude, Devere Rogers, Noah Danby, Olivia Depatie, Keller Viaene.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/My-Spy-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6985"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7290,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6985\/revisions\/7290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}