Now, I gotta admit
this movie didn't look too bad in the previews. Yet at the same
time I'm not surprised it turned out to be this awful.
This is simply another run-of-the-mill buddy cop (or buddy spy, if you
want to be technical) flick. You got the serious white guy, who
chooses to go by the book, and the funny black guy, who chooses to
be obnoxious and do things his way. How original!
"I
Spy" contains hardly a speck of originality. It's all been
done before. And people complained about "Bad Company"?
Neither are great films, but at least I got a few good laughs out of
"BC." Every single gag is as cheap as can be.
There's even a scene where Owen Wilson and Eddie Murphy get into a
brawl and kick each other in the privates. Only the youngest
of children (and I know, because most of the audience I saw it with was little
ones and they were laughing their heads off) can possibly find this
funny. Wilson and Murphy's chemistry is good, but the premise is
so old and stale that it really doesn't matter.
There's even a
cheap-o plot twist that has been used in many spy films of the past.
About all that kept me from dozing off was the stunningly beautiful
Famke Jaansen. I never saw the original "I Spy"
television series, but I'm pretty damn sure it had a lot more class than
this awful remake. And I hate to say it, but Eddie Murphy is
starting to lose his touch. You can't always blame the
script--especially since Murphy is known for his improvisation.
All he does is yell and scream, and repeat the same lame jokes,
expecting he's gonna get a laugh the second, third or tenth time.
And of course, since he's playing an egotistical athlete, he has to
go through the clichéd routine of referring to himself in the third
person. It was funny when Orlando Jones did it in "The
Replacements." Murphy simply wears the joke out. And "I
Spy" definitely holds the record for the most time the phrase
"whoop yo ass" was used in a feature film.
This movie is
dull, annoying, badly written, badly acted and badly directed--not to
mention totally unoriginal and totally unfunny!
