Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

Spy Blu-ray Movie Review

Always a bridesmaid.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 2, 2015

Note: One central plot point which occurs early in the film and which sets everything in motion is unavoidable to mention in this review and may be seen by some as a spoiler. Those who haven't seen the film and who are sensitive to too much plot description are encouraged to skip to the technical aspects of the review, below.

Paul Feig took quite a bit of perhaps unexpected heat when he announced he was going to helm a gynocentric reboot of the venerable Ghostbusters, but the fact is the energetic writer-director has already stormed the bastions of testosterone fueled genres and firmly plopped down a female within those ranks in the often hilarious if just as frequently potty mouthed Spy. Is there any better exemplar of masculinity than James Bond and the whole world of espionage? Spy takes many of the tropes from the Bond films and revisits them from the perspective of supposed CIA agent Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy, reteaming with Feig after Bridesmaids and The Heat), who has in fact been consigned to more of an analyst position, an office bound computer junkie who works in support of the very Bond-esque Bradley Fine (Jude Law). Susan more than obviously has a major crush on Bradley, and when things go sour on a mission and Fine is apparently terminated with extreme prejudice by a nasty foreign agent, Susan is pressed into action since her office jockey job has meant that no other foreign intelligence agencies know who she is or what she looks like. Spy offers a ton of bells and whistles along the way, but is in essence a fish (spy?) out of water story, as the well meaning if occasionally clumsy Susan adopts a number of alter egos on her hunt to find a portable nuclear device which the bad guys are planning on using for terrorism purposes.

Susan’s supposed “promotion” (even though she correctly points out she’s already an agent) at the hands of her no nonsense superior Elaine Crocker (Alison Janney) doesn’t sit well with some of the other male agents, notably blowhard Rick Ford (Jason Statham, showing considerable comedy chops throughout this film). None of the naysaying sways Susan, though, and she’s very motivated to track a nefarious woman named Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne), the villainess responsible for Bradley’s demise. Ford, convinced Susan is a walking disaster (a perhaps not completely inaccurate assessment), quits the Agency in a huff and vows to take care of business his own way. That sets up a running gag that recurs throughout the film where Susan, hot on the trail of various terrorists, and ultimately well ensconced in Rayna’s inner circle, keeps having to deal with Ford, who keeps showing up trying to do more traditional James Bond-y things.

The film is chock full of great little character bits, including a fun turn by Michael McDonald as this film’s version of Q, a gadget wielding inventor who keeps disappointing Susan with the pedestrian nature of the toys she gets to take on her mission. Bobby Cannavale chews the requisite amount of scenery as the bad guy trying to facilitate the sale of the portable nuclear device that only Rayna knows the location of. And Miranda Hart is frequently laugh out loud funny as Susan’s own computer jockey Nancy, a befuddled woman who ultimately gets pressed into service herself, with appropriately chaotic results. Spy belongs resolutely to its star trio, however, and McCarthy, Statham and Byrne are all at the top of their games, providing a wealth of both physical shtick and surprisingly breezy interplay.

The raunch factor that has become a trademark of Feig’s pieces with McCarthy is still very much in evidence throughout Spy, and at least some of the humor stems from admittedly juvenile techniques like nonstop dropping of the f-bomb and other similar tactics. However, a lot of the verbal humor in Spy is whip smart, including some priceless one liners that fly by like speeding bullets. That said, Feig is as typically uneven in Spy as he has been in some of his other pieces. There are whole bits that just go nowhere, like an early interchange between Susan and Bradley’s gardener, or a brief running gag involving various plague like swarms of rodents (flying or otherwise) that inhabit the CIA basement where Susan and Nancy man their computers. Some by the numbers plotting features a not all that surprising "twist" late in the game, and the climax of the film is relatively tame, given much of the hyperbole that has preceded it. But Spy is a lot of fun virtually its entire ride, and may in fact have provided McCarthy and Feig with an unexpected new franchise.

Spy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Spy is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. As Feig and DP Robert Yeoman discuss in their really interesting commentary included on this Blu-ray, the decision was made to capture this film with Arri Alexa cameras, evidently based at least somewhat on the cameras' ability to handle low light situations so well. That may seem counter-intuitive, given the bright, sometimes candy colored, ambience of much of the film. The image offers the typically sharp, precise and sleek look of this idiom, and the film's globe trotting provides some scenic shots of various European locales. Fine detail is often excellent, especially in close-ups, where elements like the natty pill on some of Susan's dowdy undercover clothes is revealed in all its "glory". The film is refreshingly free of any really aggressive color grading, and the palette looks natural and inviting. While shadow detail is generally commendable, there are occasional moments of minor crush. Pay attention, for example, to the scene where Susan and Italian agent Aldo are in a dungeon, and their black clothing almost becomes an indistinguishable whole, blending both together and with the shrouded background. There are occasional intentionally rough looking moments when video feeds and the like are featured (see screenshot 3).

Spy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Spy features a rocking DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix that offers consistent immersion and a very forceful low end, though that said, the film, while offering a number of explosions, car chases and other similar gambits, is perhaps somewhat less propulsive than a "traditional" spy film. A number of sonically busy sequences offer great placement of sound effects in discrete channels, and some of the urban environments are really vividly alive with ambient environmental effects. Special kudos must be afforded to Theodore Shapiro's great score, one which purposefully apes the great John Barry, and which features a fantastic Barry-esque theme song, one which (heresy though this may be to some readers) puts Adele's "Skyfall" to shame, in my not so humble opinion. Fidelity is top notch and dynamic range very wide on this problem free track.

Spy Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Redacted Scenes (1080p; 3:13). Wow—redacted!
  
  
• Classified Alternate Scenes (1080p; 31:51)


• Top Secret Gag Reel (1080p; 6:39)


• Extra Top Secret Behind the Scenes Gag Reel (1080p; 3:43)


• Director of Intelligence Feig Makes the Cast Do His Bidding (1080p; 8:53) offers some really funny bits with Feig directing the actors in various takes.


• Susan and Her Men (1080p; 8:18) focuses on some of the main characters.


• Super Villain Rayna Can't Keep It Together (1080p; 5:05) offers scenes of Rose Byrne losing it during various takes.


• Super Vermin (1080p; 1:34) is a bunch of vignettes with various characters and the rats that overtake the office.


• The Many Deaths of Anton (1080p; 00:57) is a bunch of alternate takes of a death scene.


• The Trouble With Covers (1080p; 2:28) is a bunch of takes featuring some improv and a few bloopers.


• The Great Rick Ford (1080p; 3:42) is devoted to Jason Stratham's character.


• For Your Eyes Only: Jokes-a-Plenty (1080p; 13:25) offers more extended scenes with improv.


• The Handsy World of Spies (1080p; 1:52) is a brief piece featuring hands and more hands.


• Speaking is an Art Form (1080p; 1:57) offers actors flubbing lines.


• Super Villains of the Animal World (1080p; 2:19) is some funny footage of actors dealing with various beasties.


• How Spy Was Made

  Paul Feig: Alt P (1080p; 11:08) profiles the writer-director.

  Indecent Proposals from the Cast (1080p; 3:04) is about Paul's collaborative spirit .

  Changing Statham (1080p; 5:45) discusses Statham's comedic sensibilities in this film.

  Stuntarama (1080p; 13:26) looks at some of the exciting work with fight choreography and various vehicles.

  In Da Klub (1080p; 6:26) is hosted by 50 Cent.

  Susan's Disguises (1080p; 4:31) is a tour through the various characters McCarthy plays as the undercover Susan.

  Odd Couple on Set (1080p; 4:50) centers on McCarthy and Feig.

  No Go Gadgets (1080p; 3:36) features some actors in character as CIA workers discussing their wish lists for weapons.

• The Filmmakers Tell You How Spy Was Made as You Watch the Film! AKA The Commentary Track features Paul Feig; Bob Yeoman, DP; John Vecchio, gaffer; Jessie Henderson, producer; and Wally Garcia, fight coordinator. The extended version features the same commentary as the theatrical version with additional information, though perhaps it's more appropriate to state that the theatrical version has some information excised, since that's how Feig presents the recording/editing order in his opening statement in the commentary. This is a detailed, informative piece, with well behaved participants who contribute without talking over each other. Especially interesting are the conversations between Feig and Yeoman on capturing the image with the Arri Alexa.


• Theatrical Version (1080p; 2:00:06) and Unrated Version (1080p; 2:10:22) of the film.

Spy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Melissa McCarthy is such a winning screen presence that she really requires very little to support her, as has sadly been proven in some of her less stellar cinematic efforts. Spy may not be perfect, and it in fact shows more than a few traces of Feig's inability to just rein things in and keeps scenes brief and to the point, but it is so consistently amusing and flat out guffaw provoking at several junctures that it's hard to be too curmudgeonly about its shortcomings. McCarthy, a wonderfully spry Statham, and an amusingly vicious Byrne are all a total hoot (to purloin a description from Susan Cooper herself). The large supporting cast includes a number of standout performances as well. Despite Feig dragging things on for too long, the film is essentially well paced and delivers more than its fair share of forceful laughs. Technical merits are first rate, the supplementary package is outstanding, and Spy comes Highly recommended.