The Spy Who Dumped Me * (2018, Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, Sam Heughan, Hasan Minhaj) – Movie Review

Another spy spoof – really? In 2018? And another film using The Spy Who Loved Me as its spoof title, following The Spy Who Shagged Me of course.

Real spy films are getting played out all over again as Jason Bourne (2016) hit the rocks the fourth time with just a generic sequel, with  The Fast and the Furious getting slow and tepid, and Bond just ready for final retirement.

Spy spoofs were played out as long ago as the Sixties with Dean Martin as Matt Helm in The Silencers and James Coburn as Derek Flint in Our Man Flint (1966), not to mention The Man from UNCLE films like One Spy Too Many. What happens is, when they run out of ideas or steam making real spy movies they spoof them. That’s all they’ve got left. It is the period of decadence for the genre. So now Bourne and Bond are getting creaky, co-writer/ director Susanna Fogel fancies sending it all up one more time.

Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon star as Audrey and Morgan discover that Audrey’s boyfriend (Justin Theroux) who dumped her is a spy. So they head for Europe and get tangled up in an international conspiracy, mixed up with Sebastian (Sam Heughan) of MI6 and Duffer (Hasan Minhaj) of the CIA.

Susanna Fogel hasn’t anywhere to take this. It’s all been done before. It’s all played out. But, to give her her due, she puts huge energy and slickness into it, turning in a smart-looking movie, and pretends it is all as fresh as a daisy and as clever as a fox. She stages the action as though it is a real spy film, ie excitingly, making you wish to heck that she had made a real spy film instead. These scenes are good, whereas the comedy ones are mostly struggling. This spy spoof is just a lame, warmed-up rehash of old spy cliches, though, admittedly, served with a smile.

Fogel seems as pleased as Punch. Certainly Kunis and McKinnon look it. They are as bright as a lightbulb, as bright as a pair of lightbulbs. In McKinnon’s case too bright. Her character of Morgan Freeman (so exactly why is that funny?) in the film is accused of being ‘a bit much’. That apparently stings Morgan. It would surprise nobody if in real life McKinnon was accused of being ‘a bit much’ on screen. That is her flavour and her persona. There are those who find her amusing, funny or even hilarious. I overheard someone calling for her to be headline star of her own movie. But then again I even overheard someone saying that The Spy Who Dumped Me is hysterical.

Well, it must be a case of horses for courses. Comedy, maybe more than any other genre, is a matter of personal taste. McKinnon, like Melissa McCarthy and Zach Galifianakis, are either funny or not, as you find them. Lou Costello and Jerry Lewis were either funny or not, as you found them. McKinnon mugs mercilessly, rolls her eyes, does ‘funny’ things with her arms and legs. She pulls out all the stops to try to get laughs. Yet she is never funny, not in the ballpark of funny.

Kunis is a sweet and lovely low key performer, attractive and appealing. She graces this film with her charming presence, even when she is made to say smutty, borderline filthy lines. Kunis does manage to establish a sweet-and-sour double-act rapport with the abrasive McKinnon. She makes the going relatively easy, as do Theroux and Heughan, who both get more screen time than you would expect and make the most of it.

Caught up with its own over-confidence and high self-esteem, the country-hopping film rambles on and on, way into overtime. The film’s length is 117 minutes – just under two draggy hours! About 90 minutes or less is right for this kind of caper.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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