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I Spy

I Spy

List Price: $14.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Murphy past use-by date
Review: What promised to be a great team-up of Murphy & Wilson turned out to be one of the biggest flops I've seen for some time. Wilson, though blessed with a charming charisma, has fallen into the age-old trap of using the same charecter mannerisms in all his movies. His "hey, doncha think this is kind of amazing..." verbal style of moving through scenes, though watchable (and at times funny) gets a little tired after seeing it in Armageddon, Behind Enemy Lines etc. But then the REAL stereotype of this movie is Axel Foley...Oops, I mean Eddie Murphy. Stuck in the 80s, Murphy is well and truly past his use-by date. His only real excursions into new humour were the Nutty Professor movies. In fact, his irritating prattle got in the way of many scenes in this movie, turning what could have been marginally amusing into downright annoying. Too many times I had to rewind to work out what the heck he was saying. Murphy's character's ineptitude burst my bubble of belief suspension too many times for me to enjoy the rest of the movie - He just wasn't funny enough to "justify" his otherwise stupid remarks, which joltingly interrupted the storyline. The absolute highlight - A scantily clad Famke, lying on a bed trying to take a nap, while being "wooed" by Wilson's ultra-shy character. To give the movie some credit, the effects were quite good & the supporting cast performed admirably. It still makes me cringe to watch performance cars getting smashed and blown up, but with a bit of luck, they do THIS using special FX these days...
In short, the film's rating - PG-13 - should mean the MAXIMUM age for the audience of this movie.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: i spy a very average movie
Review: The acting was ok, though Owen Wilson i thought was a very boring actor, but i have to say Eddie Murphy acted well, like you could easily tell how he felt in situations unlike Owen. The humor was ok, like i've seen much better, though sadly most of the movies jokes where old ones from other movies like how Eddie says "im 009 and a half"(rush hour 2). The funniest bit in the movie was probably the bedroom scene were Eddie told Owen what to say to get the chick but other than that it wasn't very funny.

The story was also very average, like its the type of movie everyone's already seen and i thought the movie used too many special effects for unecessary reasons. For an action movie i thought this was very weak movie like there were no thrills.

What bothered me about the movie was the fact that the girl kept kicking owens nasty spot and trying to slice his (edit) with a knife, like i thought it was pointless and unecessary. Not that i hate violent movies but as a guy watching those bits just put me off which im sure is the way other guys must have felt while watching those bits.

If you are looking for a humorous action movie i suggest you look away from this.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Kind of funny, but overall lame.
Review: Story summary:
Alex Scott (Owen Wilson) is a secret agent for an American investigative service. He has a tendency to screw up investigations but somehow still get the job done. Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy) is a world champion boxer that has never lost a professional fight. Of course this has left him with an ego larger than Asia and lots of money. Because he is unbeatable in America he agrees to an international bout in Hungary.

It just so happens that the U.S. has recently developed a new spy plane called Switchblade that has the ability to become invisible to the naked eye. International arms dealer Arnold Gundars (Malcolm McDowell) has stolen the plane and is using the boxing fight as a cover to bring international buyers to Hungary to sell the plane.

For some reason the president decides that Kelly Robinson should help Alex Scott get the plane back. So, Kelly and Alex are teamed up against Arnold as they go through a series of adventures trying to get the plane back.

My comments:
Despite having two very funny, comedic actors, both which I like very much, this movie just isn't that funny. The problem isn't with the actors but with the story. There are virtually no original ideas in this story. The team up of this action/comedy duo, a boxer with an agent, is virtually identical to the team up of Jackie Chan, a martial arts expert, with Chris Rock, a detective that can never get things right. There is also nothing particularly new about a secret weapon that has been stolen (Cradle 2 the Grave, Mission Impossible 2, Triple XXX etc.) that if placed in the wrong hands will result in mass destruction. So, the story is pathetically unoriginal.

The movie is also kind of slow. The 20 minutes on top of the bridge where the plane has been stored for the last week involve so many reversals and twists that by the end you find yourself wishing they'd all just jump off and end your misery.

Despite the rampant problems, there are a couple of good things about the movie. Murphy and Wilson are kind of funny, but their humor is spread out far too much. There are a couple of scenes that are actually particularly funny, like the two of them being trapped in the sewer. But comedic scenes like this are followed up by non-sensical scenes like Alex's blow up at Robinson while walking back to their base which results in Robinson's arrest - it had no relevance to the rest of the story and didn't really seem to impact the story other than to get Alex alone.

Overall, the movie is good for some cheap laughs but doesn't deliver on a unique story or concept. If you like Owen Wilson and/or Eddie Murphy this is worth seeing, but it doesn't really stand out as a comedic achievement.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Another old TV show gets the Hollywood style makeover
Review: The latest production from Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna is the combined efforts of FOUR screenwriters!! I SPY sees the reteaming of Eddie Murphy with DR. DOLITTLE director Betty Thomas. Based on the 60s TV show starring Robert Culp and Ozzy Osbourne's #1 fan, Bill Cosby; this update sees Murphy stepping into Culp's role and Owen Wilson in place of Cosby.
The plot: Arnold Gundars (Malcolm McDowell) is an illegal arms dealer who has stolen The Switchblade, a top secret government spy plane equipped with an invisible cloaking device which he plans to sell to the highest bidder.
Special Agent Alex Scott (Wilson) is assigned the task of retrieving the plane and arresting Gundars, but finds himself reluctantly partnered with Kelly Robinson (Murphy) World Middleweight Boxing Champ and egomaniac who always refers to himself in the third person. So his line "My Grandmother was the first person that punched me in the face" should be "Kelly Robinson's Grandmother was the first person that punched Kelly Robinson in the face". How about some script coherance? The duo are assisted by sexy Secret Agent, Rachel Wright (Famke Janssen) who may also be a double agent, and to whom Scott finds himself attracted, which makes the situation more complicated (Who can blame him? I've been a fan of Famke's since she strangled that old geezer with her thighs in GOLDENEYE).
I SPY is a movie that's predictable, but still entertaining in spite of itself. Murphy and Wilson help raise it a few notches with their banter and in addition there are also some good action sequences. What I don't understand is why trained spies would need the help of the World Middleweight Boxing Champ to find a stolen plane! Don't bother searching for a logical explaination.
That said, this is still far superior to Murphy's previous effort PLUTO NASH. But I SPY is not a film that is made to be picked apart and analysed, it's simply a movie made for viewing with a group of friends with lots of buttered popcorn and Coke (the soda!) on hand. Taken on that level it's worth watching.
DVD extras include Director's commentary, trailers and several featurettes on the gadgets, costume design and fight choreography.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: I Spy A Letdown
Review: Kelly Robinson (Murphy) is the super middle weight champion who is enlisted by a phone call from George Dubya to help Alexander Scott (Wilson) recover the a stealth fighter stolen by Gundars (Malcolm McDowell).
The movie itself had a few funny moments but that's about it. Eddie Murphy was so annoying in this movie that I was tempted to turn it off. To his credit, the "Sexual Healing" bit was pretty funny but that was about it. The story line was long and drawn out and there was absolutely no originality in this remake.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: UGH!!!
Review: Quite possibly the most terrible movie ever made.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: so so
Review: this film was not as good as i had expected. there are some funny scenes but the film seems to lack something

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Ugh: insipid and tired
Review: It's not even really a re-vamp of the old TV series, which was intelligent, dramatic and high-minded, whereas this pile of beetle dung is insipid, silly beyond imagination for something with this budget and low-brow. Eddie phones in a wack performance that no one buys anyway, and Owen Wilson should have his nose broken straight for opting to appear in this tripe. Not funny, not necessary and not even rent-worthy. If "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" is actually worse than this, someone needs to tie Eddie Murphy to a chair and make him watch "Raw" over and over until his eyes bleed. It's utterly anti-climactic and the "riffing" between Murphy and Wilson is not only over-rated, but tired.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Insipid and Weak Remake of the 60s TV Spy Series
Review: Frankly I was hugely disappointed with this one. Yes, Owen Wilson & Eddie Murphey would have looked a nice pair for a spy film with lots of comedy, and I expected to see some thrills and much laugh from them. What I saw is, however, just tedious, recycled materials from the genre, and those stars, usually reliable, look very tired.

The worst part is the story, which is too far-fetched. Wilson is a spy Alex (with a cellphone) whose career as secret agent is not clearly auspicious, after an unsuccessful mission. So, when he is given a task to get back an invisible airplane "Switchblade" stolen from the US government, he is eager to do that job until he finds that he has to accompany an invincible boxing champ Kelly (Eddie Murphey), to go undercover to Budapest, Hungary. There, he sneaks into a part given by a certain man named Gundars (McDowell, typecast), who must know the whereabout of the airplane.

The script, which went through the hands of four credited writers, doesn't show enough comedy nor convincing setting for the two leads to join forces. The reason those guys should be together is not explained with a satisfactory background, and the best they can do is Kelly's instruction for Alex to woo a female spy Famke Janssen. Actually, those guys do NOT share the screen long enough, or if they do, they do it in a very forced situation (like hiding in the sewer of Budapest) and the climax of the film is just as confusing as you imagine because of the badly edited action sequences.

More incredible thing is that Eddie Murphey's character Kelly is just an annoying guy whose flair for fast and energetic talk is completely gone. This is the second time I found him so irritating (the first one being "Showtime") and there is few gadgets or stunts that would make up for the loss of energy that should have been generated from the leads. The format of the whole film is simply a half-hearted spy parody of 007, and no dynamic actions or tongue-in-cheek comedy can be found here. Just an automatic flight of 90 minutes, without ups and downs.

The best prize, if you insist, should go to the location of the beautiful city of Budapest, and poorly used Famke Janssen, whose devilish "Onatop" character I sincerely miss.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: famke
Review: just wanted to say that the person who wrote famke was like a "drugged up hooker" that was so slack Famke is soooooo beautiful how could you say that? you must be really lonely or maybe or a drugged up ... and have nothing else to do but pay out beautiful people. grow up


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