Spy - Movie Review

Who's In It?

Melissa McCarthy, Jessica Chaffin, Jude Law and Jason Statham


What's It About?

When Jude Law's spy is killed, his handler (Melissa McCarthy) is the only unknown left in the agency, and must go undercover to recover a nuclear bomb.

Any Good?

From the trailer Spy looked like Get Smart turned into a typical Melissa McCarthy type of film - she's overweight hahaha - but I was surprised with how funny it was, especially Jason Statham.

The writing for the script was actually really clever, with hilarious insults and comebacks from everyone, and really odd stories from Jason Statham's super serious spy. There was no real repeating jokes like the usual Melissa McCarthy fat ones, except for a fainting one but some of the scenes deserved it.

There were some really well done and choreographed action scenes when it came to the fights, but it didn't feel too intense with it them breaking for a couple seconds to add in one liners and jokes that didn't fit well, but were smart none the less.

Spy was a lot better than I expected with great joke writing and performances from Jason Statham and Melissa McCarthy herself, I would definitely recommend this as a much better alternative to a comedy spy film like Steve Carell's Get Smart.

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Safe - Movie Review

Who's in it? 

Jason Statham, Catherine Chan and Chris Sarandon

What's it About? 

When Luke Wright's (Statham's) cage fighting life is turned upside down by the Russian Mafia all seems lost. He's a ghost in his own city until he encounters Mei (Chan), a young Chinese girl whose photographic memory just might get them killed or be their redemption. The Triads, Russian Mob and crooked NYPD are all gunning for the former.

Any Good? 

Have you seen a Jason Statham film before? Transporter? Killer Elite, maybe? Did you enjoy it? Great, you're going to love this so. Just as Burton and Depp wheel out the same dark humor over and over under the guise of current movie making so too does Statham, only in place of the quirkiness is eye watering hand to hand combat and questionable acting ability.

In Safe we are treated to a somewhat complicated plot line and considerable subtitling, but that's ok because we came for the fisticuffs. Statham tries invariably hard to provide emotional depth to his character but it's just not his strong point, Chan is the perfect foil to his tough guy persona though, her script is funny and she's a delight to watch. Unfortunately the rest of the cast are shoehorned in with every cliché driven line and racial stereotype the writers could muster.

Clichéd? Us?

We’re never told why exactly Wright would risk life, limb and murder countless baddies in order to keep Mei ‘Safe’, nor are we given anything resembling a credible plot line when we learn how high the corruption goes. What we do know is that Mei has memorized a code that everyone wants and are willing to maim and kill indiscriminately to get.

The fight scenes, car chases and shoot ‘em ups are great fun and excellently executed but just too few and far between for any Statham film worth its salt. The body count is extraordinarily high but the characters and ‘comedy’ is so poor that Safe is never more than a forgettable flick.

'Don't be givin' me evils!'

Statham is very good at what he does, if what he does is action and gritty fight scenes. If you're a fan then you'll want to spend your tenner and see this on the big screen. Otherwise, I’d advise you wait for this one on DVD, though the lads disagree wholeheartedly. They reckon Safe deserves 5 cherries, I reckon they’re adopted.

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