Dave Bautista’s gifts of action savvy have been on display since he introduced us to Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy. One could argue his comedic talents were also on display in the James Gunn film series. He teased that “playing the straight guy” aptitude earlier this year in Stuber opposite Kumail Nanjiani. A true test of all of the above arrives with the family-centric action-comedy My Spy.
Bautista plays JJ, a CIA operative whose penchant for blowing things up has gotten in the way of the “I” in the spy agency’s moniker. The “Intelligence” gathering element is hard to do if no one’s left standing! He is given one last chance by his commander, David Kim (Ken Jeong). JJ’s been tasked to stake out, with his tech-savvy colleague Bobbi (Kristen Schaal), Kate (Parisa Fitz-Henley), and her elementary school-aged daughter Sophie (Chloe Coleman). Kate’s ex-husband has perished and his brother, Sophie’s uncle, is likely responsible and now seeking to find her. Before JJ and Bobbi can even get all that tech plugged in, a wise-beyond-her-years 9-year-old is standing in their doorway, iPhone camera recording.
Sophie sort of blackmails JJ and Bobbi into indulging her desire to learn about being a spy. So, JJ takes her skating, they go out for ice cream and a bond starts to form. The key to this film working or not is the chemistry between Bautista and Coleman. They have it in spades.
Coleman (Big Little Lies) is a find. She has an innate gift that comes across as effortless, which of course we know is anything but. The little actress has honed her talents since she first appeared in Glee back in 2013. Sophie works kind of a Parent Trap with JJ and her mom, and as such, is just one of the many actor’s toolbox emotions she must cull to effectively capture what Sophie does in My Spy. There’s action, there’s humor and there’s the little girl who doesn’t have a father and sees JJ as someone who could fill that role. With a lesser child actor, that tether to the viewer might not be as strong. Coleman (soon to be seen in Avatar 2) has a screen presence that actors two and three times her age can’t harness and she’s game for everything this production throws at her—even a hair-raising action/stunt sequence involving an airplane.
Bautista further adds layers to what he is cinematically capable of achieving. Although he might not quite have the Arnold Schwarzenegger charm that the ex-California governor exhibited in Kindergarten Cop, he’s at least in the right ballpark. He’s got the action part down pat and the comedic timing is right there as well. There’s a physical comedy element to parts of My Spy and the Guardians of the Galaxy star is game.
The chemistry between Coleman and Bautista, which is so key to this film working, is a two-way street. Not every actor can pull off that elusive electricity with child actors. For someone who didn’t necessarily train as an actor, Bautista shows uncanny natural abilities in this department that makes My Spy work. Hopefully, there are more opportunities for him to flex that muscle in the future. I doubt we’ll get a sequel to this picture, but perhaps someone out there will see the Bautista-Coleman terrific tandem and put pen to paper for another action-comedy vehicle for him.
Director Peter Segal has an uncanny knack for making films that have no business being as good as they are and keeping them firmly in their lane. My Spy never apologizes for what it is and simultaneously, never tries to be anything beyond what it is—a fish out of water, law enforcement/kid wise beyond her years hybrid that meshes action, comedy, and heaps of heart. For example, Segal has his tonal handprints all over 50 First Dates and Get Smart. Those were films that had no business being as affable as they were and that is also the sense emitted by his latest. Too often, filmmakers approach projects such as My Spy and think to themselves, “Sure this is an action-comedy with that adult-child actor charm, but it could be “this” as well…” Wrong. It is what it is and nothing more and nothing less and in the hands of Segal, that is what it is allowed to be.
My Spy suffers from is a lack of groundedness. Sure, there is no world where a CIA agent would leave his post to go skating with the little girl he’s assigned to surveil. That’s fine and pushes the narrative forward. But let’s put a little more effort into the antagonist. Our protagonists are pitch-perfect. Yet the “bad guy” in this flick is merely there to be evil. Someone has to be, right? The script never even attempts to fill out that character even a little bit—just so there’s something for us to root against.
That being said, screenplay writers Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber also possess the right stuff, when it comes to crafting films that work when all signs said they shouldn’t. Flicks such as The Meg, Battleship, and Red. The brothers have a solid command of the action and how it can, if utilized correctly, move the emotional needle as well in films such as this. The pair just don’t give us too much on the villain, as I said, but all we know about JJ, in terms of backstory, is what we witness in the opening sequence where he obliterates everyone that the CIA needed intelligence out of. That’s fine. My Spy isn’t trying to be a Bourne movie, but it does draw back a bit from the overall connectivity between audience and performers.
My Spy has had a difficult run to being seen by audiences. Originally, the flick was supposed to debut in August of 2019. Then, Segal’s film was scheduled to hit theaters on March 13 but got yanked when the Coronavirus closed everything.
At first, STX Entertainment moved it to April 17, thinking movie houses could be open by then. As history as shown, that didn’t happen either. The studio decided to deliver it to Amazon Prime and have it open on June 26. Honestly, it is a perfect fit for the streaming giant. There are countless families stuck at home who are desperate for kid-friendly entertainment that the parents can also enjoy. That is My Spy, without a doubt.
Grade: B