| Home | Movies A-M | Movies N-Z | News |
Owen Wilson is Alexander Scott, a bumbling special agent who has a crush on fellow agent Rachel (Famke Janssen), but, of course, never has the nerve to talk to her in other than work-related speeches. When Gundars (Malcolm McDowell) steals a plane that can become invisible (how do you steal a plane?), Alex teams up with "civilian" Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy), who just happens to be a championship boxer whose ego is greater than this flim's budget. They team up to solve the crime.
This film is OK, put in layman's terms. I did chuckle a couple times (OK, maybe more than a couple, but not enough to put me in stiches), and some scenes with one-liners were especially good. But this movie is nothing memorable.
If one actor could be underused, it's Owen Wilson. If one actor could be overused, it's Eddie Murphy. I Spy looks like Eddie's biggest hit of the year (behind Showtime and The Adventures of Pluto Nash), but that's not saying much. When I went, there were about ten people max in the theater. Then again, who goes to a movie on Sunday at 2:45? Anyway, Owen Wilson is in top-form here, clearly loving acting in his comic goofiness. Eddie is OK, but nothing memorable. Am I the only one thinking that his egotistical acts weren't acting?
Billed as an action-comedy, there were only about two action scenes. They had a possibility to use a lot of gadgets, but for some reason decided to only use a few (though the invisible plane was pretty cool). No heart-pounding situations here, but the couple action scenes were OK. There was chemistry between Wilson and Murphy, but goes for those too-often "buddy movie twists" where they hate each other for a little but then get back together when one of them's in trouble.
In the ending, there was much switching sides, nobody knew who was on their side. Even the people who were switching sides didn't know after awhile. Unfortunately, they left off at a "sequel space" and tried to wrap everything up in the ending.
The subplots seemed to be too long and unecessary. It must have been a ten-minute scene where Wilson is trying to "seduce" Janssen with Murphy feeding him lines. It didn't do anything for me.
If you're looking for a mildly funny, interesting but gadget-lacking movie, I Spy is it. If you aren't, steer somewhere else.
Rated PG-13 for language, fake explosions, and sexual innuendo.
Review Date: November 3, 2002