I Spy (2002)

I Spy (2002)

6/10

Starring

Eddie Murphy

Owen Wilson

Famke Janssen

Malcolm McDowell

Directed by Betty Thomas

I saw some of the old I Spy by Robert Culp and Bill Cosby it was a serious series thriller with no comedy at all. This version with Owen Wilson and Eddie Murphy is all jokes with every spy fun they could lay their hands on.

The character both of them played were misfits who are having challenges being in the same place at the same time. Together where ever they went chaos and comedy followed and I just could not stop but laughing all the way through this movie. Sad that this movie was not a box office success because this movie had many ways a second part could go.

The movie is directed by Betty Thomas and she was the same person in the director sit for Murphy’s version of Doctor Dolittle (1998).

The movie plot is about two men who make a chaotic union because the country needed them to be. One of the men is Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy) who is a middleweight boxing champion. The other is Special Agent Alex Scott (Owen Wilson) who just got promoted to special agent and is not the best at the job and the first mission we witness him at work proves it.

Their mission was about a stealth plane which is in the hands of arms dealer Gundars. Gundars is looking to sell the plane to the highest bidder and Alex’s agency wants to stop that. Gundars is a boxing lover and he is hosting a middleweight boxing match in Budapest. The match has Robinson taking on a challenger for his belt and the U.S. government wants to use this as a cover to get Alex into the mix so he can recover the plane.

Alex was not the first choice for this mission, but the main spy for his agency is too popular and so he would not have been able to be of help.

The two misfits started off trying to show the other which was in control, this whole process of trying to get one over the other was an problem initial problem until they found a balance. Then there is Alex’s crush Agent Rachel Wright, who Robinson is tries to help Alex woe.

This movie is all laughs and it takes no prisoners, it is odd that the movie was both a commercial and critical failure. Many disliking it because of the plot and the movie being like Wilson and Murphy trying to show off to each other who is funnier.

I for one liked that about the movie, it gave me enough reasons to laugh and the plot is simple. They removed all the complexity and focused more on the laughs.

I believe the movie is funny, fun and many just misjudge it.