I Spy Movie Review:


Taking old successful television series and turning them into feature films is not a new idea. Putting Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson as partners in the action comedy I-Spy may have seemed a good concept at the time but turned out to be a letdown.

The little chemistry they have mixed up with the weak script results in a film that is mildly amusing and mostly a snore.

Eddie plays loud mouth Kelly Robinson, a middleweight world-boxing champion who is grudgingly paired with the unassuming special agent Alex Scott played by Wilson. Their top-secret mission is to recover the latest U.S. stealth aircraft called the Switchblade that was recently stolen.

The man responsible for snatching the plane is a despicable arms dealer named Arnold Gundars (Malcolm McDowell) who is planning to sell the Switchblade to the highest bidder.

Kelly is asked to provide civilian cover for Alex since Kelly has an upcoming boxing match at Gundar’s estate in Budapest where the plane is hidden.

In view of the fact that Kelly and Alex don’t like each other, have opposite personalities and don’t see eye-to-eye, this dangerous mission could be compromised by their shenanigans. They must learn to work together in order to prevent disaster.

I-Spy is full of lame jokes that not surprisingly aren’t that funny or fresh. Eddie seemed to have improvised a lot of his lines without being able to come up with anything really uproarious 90% of the time.

There is one hilarious scene where Eddie instructs Owen how to pick up Agent Rachel (Famke Janseen) who in the film Owen’s character is in love with but too shy to do anything about it.

The movie has plenty of dull chase scenes, gunfire and stupid stunts that don’t help much and are mostly a distraction.

Eddie and Owen play it safe by keeping close to their affable screen personas but neither they nor director Betty Thomas can pull this film out of the toilet.

I-Spy suffers from weak story and casting that may be easily digestible but uninteresting that for most moviegoers will prove uninviting.

Columbia - 2.5 Stars

Gil Benzeevi

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