My Spy
starring Dave Bautista, Chloe Coleman, Kristen Schaal, Parisa Fitz-Henley and Ken Jeong
written by Jon and Erich Hoeber
directed by Peter Segal
Rating: ♦♦♦♦◊
This the second comedy spy film I’ve watched recently. The other was The Spy Who Dumped Me (called Bad Spy in Japan), starring Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon, directed by Susanna Fogel. I liked them both. They were ridiculous, but that was the point. Silly and very fun, I thought. Good for relaxing and laughing.
In My Spy, JJ (Dave Bautista) is a mediocre CIA field agent with a last-chance assignment before his boss (Ken Jeong) has to decide to fire him or keep him on. It’s a simple surveillance job in Chicago, watching the (innocent) family members of an international nuclear weapons smuggler. The family consists of a single mom and her precocious 9-year-old daughter, Sophie (Chloe Coleman). Sophie discovers one of JJ’s cameras in her apartment, successfully tracks his location using a simple internet app, and blows his cover. Then she blackmails him into training her in spycraft as well as hanging out with her to look better in front of the cool kids at her knew school. JJ blatantly ignores all the protocol and gets involved with the people he’s supposed to be watching. Not just physical involvement, but emotional involvement as we see a romance evolve between JJ and Sophie’s mother, Kate (Parisa Fitz-Henely). So, it’s a formulaic story, but it’s still really fun to watch this giant guy, Dave Bautista, a former professional wrestler, acting alongside this little girl. The jokes are quick and clever, and if you pay attention you should easily notice homage sequences to the movies E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and Shrek (1990). The joke in the title is that JJ becomes Sophie’s personal spy, like a mascot.
This is the second film I’ve seen with Dave Bautista in it. He’s an interesting character. Watching him play the tough, body-builder spy next door who befriends the little girl is kind of like watching Arnold Schwarzenegger transform into the Kindergarten Cop.