Spy

Comedies! Love 'em or leave 'em, they are here to stay as there are so many different factions to them. Either one can have a slick, well written, intelligent comedy like "Thank You for Smoking" or something as inane, vulgar, tasteless 'comedy' such as "Bruno". Or you can see something in between as the physical, but funny comedy in the form of "Spy".

Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) is an unassuming, deskbound CIA analyst, and the unsung hero behind the Agency's most dangerous missions. But when her partner, Bradley Fine (Jude Law), whom she guides via a camera planted on his body, falls off the grid and another top agent, Rick Ford (Jason Statham) is compromised, she volunteers to go deep undercover to infiltrate the world of a deadly arms dealer, Sergio De Luca (Bobby Cannavale) and Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne), and prevent a global crisis. Her boss, Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney) and agent Ford believes it won't work, but after discussing it with Cooper, common sense prevails and then Crocker reluctantly agrees. Her only contingency to Cooper's being in the field is that she is only to track them and report back. Does she really think Cooper will be able to only track and report, or does she end up on the bad guys' tails? What do you think?

Others to round out the cast are Miranda Hart as Nancy B. Artingstall, another deskbound agent, Peter Serafinowicz as Aldo, Cooper's in-field resource, Sam Richardson as John, Julian Miller as Nicola and 50 Cent as Himself.

As one can tell by simply looking at his resume, director Paul Feig ("Life Sold Separately" '97, "I Am David" '03, "Early Bird" (TV movie) '05, "Unaccompanied Minors" '06, "Ronna & Beverly" (TV movie) '09, "Bridesmaids" '11, "The Heat" '13, People in New Jersey" (TV movie) '13) certainly has returned yet again to familiar ground, at least if you look at the films he's directed in the past eight plus years. This guy is a king at physical, frat fall comedy, but he does excel better than most filmmakers that gravitate toward physical comedy. This is refreshing and an anomaly in the realm of comedies today. He knows how to pace and stage his actors equally in physical situations as well as more sensitive, meaningful situations. McCarthy has had to 'pay her dues' being in certain comedies that wasn't able to showcase what she can really do, but with each film she does, she gets a little bit better--maybe because she has more clout to get those better screenplays to work with. Statham practically parodied himself in this and looked as though he had a ball doing this. This was also written by Feig as well, and even though he doesn't quite have the experience as he does with directing, he still writes far better than most other more seasoned screenwriters writing the same types of comedies with this new untapped approach to comedy--combining physical and sensitive storylines with success. This guy has got quite a future if he keeps writing these kinds of stories. Kudos!

No, there's certainly nothing Academy Award worthy here, but I really don't think that thought ever entered Feig's head while writing this, but if you want a funny story, a parody if you will on the spy industry, and one that is definitely entertaining, this is the popcorn film for your summer enjoyment.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                   Rated: R                                120min.