Melissa McCarthy is the mother of all super-spies in ... Spy.
Movies that don't take themselves too seriously are to be admired.
Spy is exactly that ... it pokes fun at itself while having plenty of laughs along the way.
This is James Bond without the secret agent as the hero.
Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) is the star of the show and proves to be every bit as successful as 007.
As you may have worked out, Cooper is not your everyday spy.
For 10 years she has been the backroom support for the CIA's hotshot spy Bradley Fine (Jude Law). She has been the brains behind his brawn.
But, when Fine is apparently killed and many of the top agents compromised by a double agent, the CIA needs an operative who is an unknown to go into the field.
Cooper, seeking to avenge Fine's murder, volunteers for the role and eventually manages to convince her boss that she can pull off the assignment.
With her sidekick Nancy (Miranda Hart), Cooper sets out to track down a portable nuclear bomb and the woman who is trying to sell it to terrorists -- Raina Boyanov (Rose Byrne).
Although Cooper may have the brains to pull off this assignment, there is huge doubt around her physical abilities to succeed.
And so the fun begins.
Cooper displays remarkable skills of observation and deduction as she works her way through the bad guys.
In true Bond fashion, she fights off the evil ones while staying remarkably injury-free.
As an unexpected bonus amongst all the mirth and the mayhem, the film's plot has twists and turns all over the place.
People you thought had died reappear, agents turn out to be double agents and the obvious doesn't always work out.
And while all this has the potential to be rather disjointed, director Paul Feig has pulled it all together impressively into a funny romp through spyland.
Spy (R16), 120 minutes
Rating: 3.5/5
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