Spy
- DB
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Plenty do it better, but not with so many laughs.
Here's what I've been watching and playing over the last seven days...
MOVIES
Spy
Movie summary: A desk-bound CIA analyst volunteers to go undercover to infiltrate the world of a deadly arms dealer and prevent diabolical global disaster. (IMDb)
I'd seen the gag reel for Spy on YouTube before seeing the movie and I've got to admit that the movie doesn't live up to its bloopers.
It's not that this is a bad movie, but the gag reel is just constantly funny from start to finish and this comedy movie just isn't.
Not that it isn't funny, because it is - in fact, it's often very, very funny indeed and I would genuinely recommend watching Spy if you want a comedy spy movie.
The problem is that the bits in-between the comedic scenes/sequences just... exist - they don't add anything to the film other than connecting one scene or sequence to the next.
Spy really does feel like Paul Feig (the writer-director of the film) had some ideas for some funny spy-related scenes first and then came up with a plot to fit them all in second.
Melissa McCarthy is great in the main role, although pretty much the entire cast is excellent, although the highlight of the movie has to be Jason Statham in full-on scene-stealing mode as a rogue agent.
Hell, I'd be happy to see a movie about his character just for how insane it would have to be in order to live up to some of the claims he makes in this film, although he works so well with McCarthy that she'd have to be there too.
If you go into Spy just expecting some good laughs, then it should do the job - even if the story isn't anything to really care about and the ending something of a damp squib.
Spy is genuinely good fun to watch, even if it does feel like a string of spy-related comedy sketches were thought of first, with the story doing little more than connecting them in an order to make sense. [7/10]
Effectively a giant-sized Andor series finale in my eyes now, even though - while I do like it very much - it's still not close to that show's level of consistent excellence.
To be fair, Andor is so grounded and A New Hope so fantastical, I think any movie trying to bridge those tones is going to suffer from a bit of a mixed identity.
GAMES
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
I'm really enjoying the combat system in this and have already hit the damage cap with Sciel which I wasn't expecting as I'm still not even halfway through the game yet from what I can tell.
As for the story and characters... they're not really working for me yet.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
The more I play this, the less I like it - the combat is pretty poor, with the enemies committing the cardinal sin of heavily prioritising targeting me regardless of whether I'm attacking them or not; the story is moving really slowly, and the characters are kind of dull.
Still, I'm not yet up to a point where I've read the game genuinely picks up and gets much, much better, so I'm hoping that happens for me, although that's no excuse for hours and hours of tedium getting to that point.
Also currently playing: Batman: Arkham City, Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)
TV
I will be starting Under the Banner of Heaven soon, so that should be reviewed either next week or the week after - a nice short season to ease back into non-Star Wars episodic story-telling.
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