Movie Type: Summer Silly
Level of Entertainment: B
Susan Cooper has spent years being the voice inside super spy Bradley Fine’s head when she gets her chance to go undercover and try to find a nuclear bomb. First off for me I have to say this is the first movie I’ve gotten my mother to go see in theatres since The Help and she enjoyed it- we both did. So that was a big deal right there.
I also want to come right out and say this is the first Melissa McCarthy movie I’ve seen since Bridesmaids of which I wasn’t really a fan. So I know there’s some criticism that she’s always playing the same character. I can’t really speak to that. I can only say I liked her in this. I liked Susan. I thought she was smart and I liked the fact that she was presented as being really good at her job. And not that she was lucky or always saved by someone else. She was smart. They play with the fact that people underestimate and have always underestimated her but I also like that at heart she’s a good person who doesn’t hold that against anyone.
The actually set-up here is fairly typical of this type of movie. Nothing there stands out. I did like the globe-trotting. I’d want to go to every one of those places. I also thought McCarthy did well with the stunts. She’s talked about how it’s not something she usually does but besides the usual outlandish movie stuff I thought she made it all look believable.
I really loved the supporting cast however. Jude Law was bearable for me for the first time in years. I would have liked more of Jason Statham’s character and more of him and Susan actually working together throughout the movie and not just the last part. Also and I can’t say this enough… Allison freaking Janney! I’m sorry but I will always and forever be a CJ Cregg girl and she could have been in it more for my liking. Though I did like that she took no shit but hey I wouldn’t expect anything less from her!
Three stars because it is fairly typical for this type of movie there’s nothing in it that’s really a surprise. Rose Byrne’s bad girl is good in small does but by the end she was grating and I got tired of the running gag of people feeling up McCarthy about half way through the movie but they kept bloody doing it. I get it! She’s got boobs. Good for her. Otherwise it was entertaining silliness that made us laugh.
Warning: The violence in this is pretty typical of this type of summer movie but there is one scene where a guy’s throat is dissolved from poison which you see and another where a knife goes through a woman’s palm in freaking slow motion! I don’t consider myself squeamish but yeah that totally made me turn away. I think it was the slow-mo.
Recommend: Yes. I mean I don’t know that you have to run out to the theatres but it’s a good choice if you’re looking for something to do with mom on a Sunday afternoon.