An excerpt from my script review for Spy which will be available 06/15/15:
1.) Marketability of the Idea
Write several other hits, then get Melissa McCarthy attached to yet another one of your scripts, and damn near anyone will make it. (Perhaps without even reading it first.)
Personally, I remember watching The Heat on my tablet during a long flight home, and bursting out laughing for most of the film. So much so that the wife kept turning around and shooting me death stares.
Bridesmaids, Identity Thief, hell even Tammy. Laughed through them all.
Miss McCarthy is funny to most people, but is it wearing thin?
My wife is a woman (imagine that), and not that she speaks for all women, but she’s beginning to lose interest in the whole “frumpy” look that always seems assigned to MM.
Melissa McCarthy is a beautiful woman, and I think it’s sad we don’t get to see more of her at her best.
Especially given that Susan (her character in the script) was attractive when she cleaned up, ditching the pants suits.
From the pictures I saw for the film, that fact appears to be left out.
The final point is I’m not sure how much longer the whole “cat lady” bit will appeal to audiences.
But here’s how this film did.
And what did The Captain think of the film? Here’s a quick taste (oooo, sexy):
The trailers for this are absolutely shitty looking. They remind me of that Bill Murray film The Man Who Knew Too Little. This bumbling idiot that manages to get the best of the bad guys. But if it starred Kevin James instead of Bill Murray.
Not that I think Melissa McCarthy is the female equivalent of Kevin James. She has her shtick and mostly sticks with it. All but St. Vincent being the exception.
As a pleasant surprise though, she isn’t treated like the bumbling goof like the trailers betray her being. In fact, she’s the most competent one in this.
Hell, she even kicks some serious ass in this.
She was a skilled agent, but fell in love with Jude Law’s character Bradley Fine. Sure, the character won’t win any awards for feminism, but it does give her some depth. She could have been a great spy but chose to stay as by Jude Law’s side being his eyes and ears. And honestly, he needs it. Hell, they all do. All the male agents are the ones who are the bumbling idiots. Jason Statham’s character even more so.
The first time you meet Jude Law he accidently shoots the bad guy he was interrogating in the head, because of a sneezing fit.
And Jason Statham… just imagine every bad ass character he has ever portrayed all combined in one, but then make that character dumb as a sack of bricks. He keeps trying to prove to Melissa McCarthy’s character just how bad ass he is by listing all these impossible things he’s done. Like his arm getting torn off so he had to use his other arm to sew it back on. Or how he crashed his car into another car while riding on top of a train, while he was on fire. Which, I think actually happened in Transporter 3.
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