180. My Spy; movie review

MY SPY
Cert 12A
99 mins
BBFC advice: Contains moderate violence, language

Ah, the big brute with heart of stone being melted by the little kid who has a knack of making a fool of the know-it-all adult.
My Spy's guise has been seen before, most notably in Kindergarten Cop when muscle-bound Terminator Arnie Schwarzenegger tried his hand at comedy.
Wrestling champ, Dave Bautista is going down a similar road having already starred in a glut of action films.
And while he isn't as natural a comic as Arnie or Dwayne Johnson, My Spy has enough about it to please family audiences.
Bautista plays a former special forces soldier who is assigned to US intelligence but still relies on brawn rather than brain.
Consequently, after he sees off a dozen bad guys in a spectacular firefight he is given a low-key assignment because it is deemed he cannot mess it up.
He reluctantly teams up with nerdy tekkie (Kristen Schaal) in a surveillance operation of a terrorist's widowed wife (Parisa Fitz-Henley).
However, they hadn't counted on the intuition of her nine-year-old daughter (Chloe Coleman) who discovers the spies within days of their arrival in a nearby flat.
Coleman brings cuteness to Peter Segal's picture. She plays an extroverted child who is sharp but still wide-eyed enough to be lure in the audience.
In other words, she is the polar opposite of the lumbering spy.
So, in her naivety, she sees him as a potential friend who can help her become popular at school and even provide a bit of romance for her forlorn mum.
Initially, Bautista's character is wanting none of this but don't ya just know that he won't be able to resist her childish charms.
My Spy could be a game of spot the movie cliche because it is overflowing with them.
The cute kid, the nerdy partner to the officer who prefers to 'work alone', the captain (Ken Jeong) who gives his bungling team one last chance, the hopeless villains, the very gay neighbours, the unkind school classmates and the desperate-for-love single parent.
We really have seen it all before.
And yet I am still trying to explain to myself why I wasn't offended by it.
Did I need some brainless fun as an antidote to lockdown? That can be the only possible explanation.

Reasons to watch: Easygoing family comedy
Reasons to avoid: Too many cliches

Laughs: Two
Jumps: None
Vomit: Yes
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 6/10

Did you know? Dave Bautista is a six-time world champion, winning the World Heavyweight Championship four times and the WWE Championship twice.

The final word. Dave Bautista: "I had zero interest in being an actor when I was wrestling. I actually did a film as a favour to a friend, and while I was doing that, I realised how bad I was. And I wanted to get better." 9 Honey

Share this post