984. Spy (2015)

Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Miranda Hart, Rose Byrne

Director: Paul Feig

Running Time: 120 mins

Spy is an American film about an unknown CIA analyst who finds herself as the only option to be the centre of a major operation to bring down a threatening nuclear weapons deal once the agency’s main operatives have been exposed to the criminals.

This film is so much fun! It’s got a kick-ass central performance by Melissa McCarthy, complemented by great shows from an A-list cast, as well as fantastic action, a suspenseful if not generic plot and consistently hilarious laugh-out-loud comedy.

This is by far one of the better James Bond parodies. Much like this year’s Kingsman: The Secret Service, it satirises the genre perfectly, throwing in brilliant in-jokes and witty copies of classic Bond moments and tropes, making for a lot of laughs, whilst it also successfully adds brilliant action and a story that is massively exciting.

The funniest thing about this film is that it is quite foul-mouthed and full of unpredictable humour from start to finish. It’s a quick-paced comedy that throws so many jokes at you, you’ll need to watch it again to have a chance of catching them all, because everything is simply so funny, and it even has a good shock value with such a high swear count and excessively comical (but often bloody) violence.

Melissa McCarthy is absolutely stunning here. She plays her generic underdog character like in films such as The Heat and Identity Thief, but she adds a bit of shine to what was quickly becoming a tiresome character, showing off quite a slick image in some of the latter stages of the film to go against her stereotype, which not only fits perfectly into the film, but is a nice surprise to see what else she can do.

The rest of the performances are fantastic too. Jude Law plays a kick-ass pseudo-007, Jason Statham brilliantly makes fun of himself in an over-the-top, sweary Statham role, whilst Rose Byrne is an incredibly suave and sexy villain, as well as being a lot of fun when it comes to the slapstick and sillier side to the plot.

That plot is, on the whole, thrillingly entertaining. Of course, you know what’s going to happen, it’s the most generic spy plot in the world, but the globetrotting, the slick gadgets, the countless criminals all make it into a rapid-fire thrill ride that’s just as enjoyable as any Bond or Mission: Impossible movie.

Finally, the action here is also incredible to watch. Melissa McCarthy does a great job of getting stuck into some very action-packed sequences, again deriving from her stereotypical on screen persona, whilst the visual effects, explosions and fight sequences throughout are both brilliant to witness as well as hilarious to watch.

Overall, this gets an 8.5, because it’s a thrilling, action-packed and hilarious spy parody that keeps up high quality comedy throughout that will leave you in tears of laughter by the end.