My Spy

There's a topic within family comedies that has been overused throughout the years since around the 1980s: the adventure where a smart aleck young kid goes through shenanigans with a large muscular actor who has a hidden heart of gold (former wrestler/bodybuilder). It's almost become a type of rite of passage for those older athletic aspiring performers who want to boost their appeal and talent range. The most well-known actors who have crossed that point in their careers include Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel, Hulk Hogan, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger. This brings us to a new entry within in genre, My Spy, which stars retired professional wrestler turned actor Dave Bautista. The marketing campaign didn't do this feature any favors of making it look above average for this type of flick. In terms of this pool of aforementioned actors, Dave has shown some better range than the more successful Dwayne and Vin but lacked enough leading man roles in his belt. It should also be noted that during his current climb building his portfolio, he once responded to a Twitter question about possibly joining a Fast and Furious by stating he "only does good movies". Once the Covid-19 pandemic started, the rights of the film were bough by Amazon and was made free to watch on Amazon Prime. I watched My Spy to see if there was anything entertaining about and after finishing it, I hope he berated his agent for putting him in this mediocre project. 

What's it about? The story follows a newly hired CIA agent whose actions in a previous mission demotes him to surveillance and ends up being blackmailed by the 9 year old daughter of his new assignment. If there is any positives to say about this premise, it's that it does fulfill the checklist of cliched plot points that are expected of those 2000 era family flicks. There are some moments where it can get cheeky with ridiculous apps that this little girl has from her lonely free time. It evens attempts to add stakes with danger in the third act.

However, it's incredibly by the numbers formulaic to where it creates more issues for itself. It's aware of the aforementioned checklist that those elements are rushed to fill in short runtime. For instance it brings up the child being shy when trying to make friends or how closed off this agent is but neither of those parts are given much attention where it just says "here is beginning of (insert story part here) and how it ends. Who cares about the middle?". Or having a forced romantic subplot within the last 30 minutes that's hastily done so that conflict can be created for the climax. The cliches it adds and trying to be hilarious about it ends up being mostly dull and lame (though a few jokes can land). 

 

How are the actors? In regards to story importance, the actors to focus on are Dave Bautista and Chloe Coleman. Dave is given such a disservice to his acting talents due to the bad directing that shows him with a stiff face that can only be describe as RBF (resting Bautista face) as it doesn't look like a good experience for the actor. The range he is capable of showing is missing here and it's a blemish on his career. Chloe fares better than him doing a fine performance that can emote alright but her dialogue is hit or miss. Honorable mentions Kristen Schaal for being able to help perk up the movie at times.  

 

Overall Consensus: My Spy fails to give its premise an entertaining spark of life due to its by the numbers forgettable mediocre script, bland directing, weak action sequences, and disservice of its lead actor. ⭑⭑1/4 Runtime: 1 hour 43 minutes PG-13

 

Reasons to watch it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors. You don't mind lame family flicks that can act as disposable background noise. You don't mind the standard strong jock adult teaming up with a smart child premise. 

 

Reasons to avoid it: You aren't a fan of the aforementioned actors. You dislike lame disposable family flicks. You aren't a fan of flamboyant gay couples in film.