Movie · 2015 · Action, Comedy, Crime · 2h · R · English
Curator score: 4.2/10 (519.3K ratings)
She's a risk they had to take.
Overview
A desk-bound CIA analyst volunteers to go undercover to infiltrate the world of a deadly arms dealer, and prevent diabolical global disaster.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.2/10
IMDb: 7.0/10
Letterboxd: 3.20/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Metacritic: 75
TMDB: 6.8/10
Director
Paul Feig
Production
Chernin Entertainment, Feigco Entertainment, TSG Entertainment, 20th Century Fox
Cast
Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Miranda Hart, Allison Janney, Bobby Cannavale, Peter Serafinowicz, Morena Baccarin, Raad Rawi, Jessica Chaffin, Sam Richardson, Katie Dippold, Jaime Pacheco, Romain Apelbaum, Richard Brake, Steve Bannos, Carlos Ponce, Will Yun Lee, Michael McDonald
Where to watch
Hulu
Curator Review
Verdict
A slick, very funny spy spoof with real action-movie momentum. Melissa McCarthy anchors it, but the movie’s secret weapon is its willingness to let everyone be ridiculous, especially Jason Statham and Rose Byrne.
Best for
fans of action comedies
viewers who like spy-movie parodies
people who enjoy big, committed comic performances
audiences looking for a crowd-pleasing studio comedy
Skip if
you want a straight espionage thriller
you dislike broad, physical comedy
you prefer subtle or dry humor
you need tightly grounded action logic
Overview
Spy works because it understands the pleasure of a good genre send-up: it knows the Bond template, then gleefully keeps breaking it. The movie has enough plot to keep the undercover mission moving, but its real engine is comic escalation, with each new disguise, fight, and betrayal turning into another chance for the cast to go bigger.
Worth noting
Melissa McCarthy plays the straight man inside the chaos without losing the character’s awkward dignity, which keeps the film from becoming pure sketch comedy. Rose Byrne is deliciously icy and vain, and Jason Statham’s absurd self-mythologizing is one of the movie’s great running jokes; he turns macho posturing into a punchline every time he opens his mouth.
Bottom line
Paul Feig stages the action with a light touch, so the set pieces land as both competent genre beats and punchlines. It’s not the sharpest spy parody ever made, but it is one of the most consistently entertaining, especially if you like movies that treat competence, vanity, and violence as equally funny.
Top Letterboxd reviews
clownhead (5★) · 4775 likes
I once used defibrillators on myself. I put shards of glass in my fuckin eye. I've jumped from a high-rise building using only a raincoat as a parachute and broke both legs upon landing - I still had to pretend I was in a fuckin Cirque du Soleil show. I've swallowed enough microchips and shit them back out again to make a computer. This arm has been ripped off completely and re-attached with this fuckin arm. During the threat of an… more I once used defibrillators on myself. I put shards of glass in my fuckin eye. I've jumped from a high-rise building using only a raincoat as a parachute and broke both legs upon landing - I still had to pretend I was in a fuckin Cirque du Soleil show. I've swallowed enough microchips and shit them back out again to make a computer. This arm has been ripped off completely and re-attached with this fuckin arm. During the threat of an… more
Matt Singer (3.5★) · 2303 likes
Jason Statham is so good in SPY he should have won an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize.
mikesmic (3.5★) · 1449 likes
this diva...
Karsten (3.5★) · 1010 likes
hell yeah
demi adejuyigbe · 931 likes
just fantastic. there's a 2-second background gag where jessica chaffin's using her computer at the spy office to see what she'd look like with different hairstyles and it got me so good. the cast of this movie is just divine!! jason statham's finest hour. rose byrne's finest hour. one of melissa mccarthy's finest hours but not The finest because she's just that fantastic. the 'game' of this movie switches up so many times and she spins each successive plate like… more just fantastic. there's a 2-second background gag where jessica chaffin's using her computer at the spy office to see what she'd look like with different hairstyles and it got me so good. the cast of this movie is just divine!! jason statham's finest hour. rose byrne's finest hour. one of melissa mccarthy's finest hours but not The finest because she's just that fantastic. the 'game' of this movie switches up so many times and she spins each successive plate like… more
2012 · Action, Comedy, Crime · 1h 49m · R · Curator 5.8/10 (1.8M ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, TNT, TBS, tru TV
An undercover comedy that balances action, bromance, and self-aware genre jokes very effectively.
2014 · Crime, Comedy, Action · 1h 52m · R · Curator 4.5/10 (1.2M ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, TNT, TBS, tru TV
More of the same energetic meta-comedy, with bigger set pieces and a stronger sense of absurd escalation.