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I Spy - 11/1/02 - PG-13 - 96m
Eddie Murphy
Owen Wilson
Famke Janssen
Director: Betty Thomas
JEF
I liked this movie. First off, I’m a big fan of Owen Wilson, who
played "Alexander Scott". After seeing him now in several movies,
I’m realizing he pretty much plays the same part, with maybe the
exception of "Behind Enemy Lines" where he played an action
hero. But, I still like his characters. I’ve always been a fan of
Eddie Murphy too, who played the role of a professional boxer named "Kelly
Robinson".
The story: Alex Scott (Wilson) is a Special Agent spy.
He try’s to be debonair, like another famous secret agent (007),
but can’t quite pull it off. Kinda like mixing James Bond with Bob
Newhart. Kelly Robinson (Murphy) is a world famous championship boxer.
The two become "partners" for a special mission, which is to
locate, and recover a top secret military jet that has cloaking capabilities.
Kelly, is sort of too cool to be hanging around with and taking orders
from Alex, but Alex knows how to play to Kelly’s week points by
tempting him with the new spy-technology gadgets. And soon Alex realizes
that Kelly has some good ideas and can teach him a few things in regards
to being smooth with the ladies and even helps in some not-by-the-book
spy tactics.
One scene in particular that cracked me up was when Kelly and Alex must
share a wire dangling from the ceiling in an attempt to hide from the
bad guy, Gundars (Malcolm McDowell). Alex gives Kelly a "spy mask",
and Kelly swears it’s nothing more than an old sock, and proceeds
to clip him onto the dangling wire, as they take off from the ground,
the two start spinning out of control, and Kelly starts getting nervous
and sick to his stomach. Of course my writing about it does not do the
scene justice.
The onscreen chemistry between Murphy and Wilson is great. It’s
fairly obvious that some of the scenes were adlibbed and the smiles on
the actor’s faces tell it all. Murphy is a fast talking smooth operator.
Wilson is his usual bumbling self, and the two matched up together are
a great team. The movie didn’t break any new ground. The storyline
was weak, and we’ve all seen it before (even Owen’s brother
Luke Wilson was in a similar movie with Martin Lawrence), but this movie
was funny. It was fast paced, and I never felt like the story dragged.
If you get the chance, go see this movie. You’ll feel good after
leaving the theatre.
Jef
