Written by: Susanna Fogel & David Iserson
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, Sam Heughan, Gillian Anderson
Rating: [3/5]
The biggest adventures can arise from the most unexpected causes such as a surprise by a loved one, or when your ex-boyfriend happens to be a spy who has individuals trying to kill mixing you up in the entire process. As you can imagine, The Spy Who Dumped Me takes the latter approach in taking the characters in this feature on a sprawling adventure putting their lives at risk.
Unhappy with where her life currently lies, Audrey (Mila Kunis) seeks comfort from her best friend Morgan Freeman (Kate McKinnon). When her ex-boyfriend comes over to pick up some of his stuff, she gets shot at and she learns he’s been a spy this whole time and he leaves her with a flash drive she needs to deliver if he dies for the sake of national security.
Very much parodying the Bond film of a similar name, The Spy Who Dumped Me sets a jet-setting adventure for the two leads who find themselves in a circumstance where they have no training. As two very normal women, they do not have the capabilities to handle an international espionage mission but due to their closeness to the matter, the CIA need them to step up and help them on a mission, which sounds quite ridiculous but makes for a fun premise of a bombastic comedy.
Bringing together Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon for a spy mystery has all of the ingredients for something comedically special, which we get in this feature. With Kunis serving as the straight man to McKinnon bringing all of the wild card energy anyone could want they make everything they can within this feature work. The chemistry they build as best friends going through this very tumultuous series of events really tests them and they deliver on every comedic beat required of them. Some of their line delivery absolutely knocks it out of the park. One scene, in particular, stands out when a man gets run over by a bus, giving McKinnon the opportunity to yell a fake concern rivaling the brilliant comedic performance given by Rachel McAdams in Game Night. These two are that good and dynamic in this feature where in delivering what makes it such a good time despite some issues.
Unfortunately for their sake, these two get saddled with an incredibly generic and predictable story that really does not make many waves. It follows the similar beats of the mysterious partner who happens to moonlight as a spy and thus gets sucked into the whole circumstance here. It does deviate in intriguing ways and plays out pretty much how anyone would suspect, but with that in mind the area it additionally nails comes in the action set pieces this feature utilizes to great effect.
For a studio comedy, the money and effort put into the action set pieces absolutely pop in creating some genuinely thrilling sequences. This allows Audrey and Morgan to look even more out of their element when compared to all of these spies and assassins trying to take each other out. A spectacular scene within a café stands out the most in displaying a thrilling shootout occurring showing just how inexperienced our two leads are and everyone else displaying their expertise in the art of killing. Chase sequences have some zip and dynamism where these two can assist in nailing their lines so well. The excellence in these areas helps distract from the substandard plot we have to begrudgingly follow throughout this feature and it certainly does just enough to get this feature over the line.
Presenting a platform for Mila Kunis to shine as a lead but more importantly giving Kate McKinnon a vehicle to display why she remains one of the funniest individuals of her generation, The Spy Who Dumped Me delivers a blast of fun. We get some fun action sequences delivering the thrills one would want in a world where spies exist all coupled with some fun supporting performances as well as bringing the additional coloring to this feature to round it out as something not necessarily groundbreaking but certainly entertaining. Despite its plot issues all this feature sought to accomplish is to exist as a comedic spy adventure and it ensures to deliver just that very well.
Films with Josh 
