I Spy (***)
review by Ken Gumbs

It’s so easy. Why don’t filmmakers get it right? Well, I’ll break down the mystery of filmmaking; dramas make you feel emotional, horror films make you scared, and comedies make you laugh. Now it’s easy to get caught up in the infinite ways to accomplish such simple tasks. If you’re talking about comedies, which I will be in this particular review, great comedies often start and end with one man, Eddie Murphy.

I am an unapologetic fan of Mr. Murphy. I have heard the arguments, he rips off Richard Pryor, he is no longer the box-office draw that his predecessors Chris Rock or Chris Tucker are, and he has made some pretty bad movies in his career. I hear the Eddie Murphy complaints; I hear them loud and clear. I don’t care!

This time around Eddie drops the cartoons and costumes of his latest hits and teams up with Owen Wilson for what Eddie does best, the buddy movie. You know the premise, a couple of cops (or spies in this case) have a humorously shaky relationship. One gets to be the straight man, one gets to be the crazy one, and often times one gets to be black while the other gets to be white. Get it, and then they are like opposites, pretty funny huh? Well in this case, it is pretty funny.

Owen plays Alex Scott, a dopey spy trying to win the heart of a fellow spy named Rachel played by Famke Janssen. When the two learn that they need to save the world from a madman with an invisible plane, whom do they call? It’s Eddie Murphy. Murphy plays Kelly Robinson, a boxing champion on his way to Hungary to fight in a championship bout. Owen and Famke use Eddie to try to track down the madman.

While Owen seems to really strive to work with director and screenwriter Wes Anderson (Bottle Rocket
and The Royal Tenenbaums), he seems happy with his role as Eddie’s straight man. Though he does get in a
few good lines, Wilson spends most of the film trying to muster up the energy to approach Janssen. That
love story never fully pans out, and neither does the story. Okay, Owen and Eddie do some spy work, get in
a car chase, and save the day. Come on, what did you think was going to happen? The story altogether is
quick moving and pretty forgettable. Unforgettable is Eddie’s performance, making maybe his funniest buddy
picture. Say what you will about Eddie Murphy and his formulaic comedies, but he makes me laugh.

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