Down on her luck Audrey (Mila Kunis) and her smart-aleck best girlfriend, Morgan (Kate McKinnon), become involved with international espionage when it's discovered that Audrey's ex-boyfriend, Drew (Justin Theroux), is a wanted spy. Kunis is an appealing comedic actress, and with back-up by Saturday Night Live's McKinnon, this should have been a cute comedy. Well, something went wrong . . . really wrong.
Could it be that it shifts uncomfortably from frothy comedy to ultra-violent action film? Did orders come from the executives up top to make the movie edgier and more violent, so it can compete with the likes of Deadpool? I mean, in one minute McKinnon is throwing out one-liners, and in the next there is a Sam Peckinpah-style bloodbath in a Vienna cafe. Then a funny and likable rideshare driver (Kev Adams), who wants to be a club DJ, gets shot in the head, and his brains spray all over the car windshield.
Undoubtedly, there are successful violent action-comedies—just look at 1984's Beverly Hills Cop—but that movie establishes its tone early and prominently. The first 20 minutes of The Spy Who Dumped Me, on the other hand, are a tonal mess with confusing flashbacks thrown in for good measure. Sure, there are some shootouts in the beginning, but the film becomes increasingly more graphic in its violence as it progresses.
It also doesn't help that the movie just isn't that witty. McKinnon has a few amusing lines here and there, but for the most part, her character's non-stop yammering grates on the nerves. Plus, the ending—when we find out the identity of the assassin who has been pulling the strings all along—really negates the entire plot.
While last month's Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a high point in the spy genre, The Spy Who Dumped Me is definitely on the low end of the scale.
