My Spy
By James Davidson
“My Spy” is a new film that was originally scheduled to be released in theaters, but amid the Covid-19 pandemic has been released on Amazon Video earlier this month. The movie is free to stream for Amazon Prime members. The movie follows CIA agents JJ (played by Dave Bautista) and Bobbi (Kristen Schaal) as they are assigned to surveil Kate (Parisa Fitz-Henley) and her nine year old daughter Sophie (Chloe Coleman). Sophie quickly uncovers JJ and Bobbi’s true motives and uses the information to blackmail JJ into being her friend and trying to set him up with her mother.
I saw the previews for this movie back when I was still able to go to theaters and was actually looking forward to reviewing it. It looked like a silly, cute, family comedy that would be good for some laughs and fun to watch. Unfortunately, I was slightly disappointed at the execution of this movie.
The movie starts out pretty straightforward and has a pretty simple plot. It might be too simple however. The plot was very predictable and I was able to figure pretty easily what was coming next. The comedy unfortunately also followed the example of the plot. Most of the jokes were very predictable and a lot of the funnier parts were unfortunately in the previews. There were few funny moments, especially the interaction with JJ and Sophie. The problem is, most of those interactions were in the previews that I had seen many times and they lost a lot of their charm.
While I thought that the interaction between JJ and Sophie was cute and at times humorous, the connections between all of the other characters seemed forced and a lot of the resulting attempts at humor fell flat. There were a few redeeming scenes, such as JJ attempting to dance while taking Kate on a date, but those moments were unfortunately few and far between. The entire attempt by Sophie to set her mother up with JJ came off as forced and I didn’t sense any kind of connection between the two characters, which hurt the movie as that is one of the main plot points.
Another issue I had with the movie was that most of the humor that was attempted came off as just incompetence by JJ and Bobbie. The two are supposed to be experienced CIA agents but it’s hard to believe that they are real spies when they are discovered by a nine year old girl within the first day of their surveillance. I think the filmmakers were attempting to make the situation humorous, instead it just came off as ineptitude by JJ and Bobbi for the most part.
While I found a lot of the humor predictable, there were a few funny parts and the story itself was cute and fun. The movie is rated PG-13 for action violence and language, but other than some violent action scenes and some light language, this is a fun light family movie that is appropriate for the entire family. Although, I think there are a few better options if you are looking for a good family movie night.
“My Spy” is a cute story with some funny parts, unfortunately it is very predictable and most of those funny parts were shown in the previews already. While the connection between JJ and Sophie is cute and silly at times, the relationships between the other characters are lacking and could use some more work. I did enjoy this movie, and it could make for a fun family movie night, but I think there are better options out there. I probably wouldn’t watch this movie more than once. It earns 2.5 out of 5 stars
Film Fodder 