SPY

“Can you imagine me as a spy? Out in the field?” says Melissa McCarthy’s frumpy overlooked PA to Jude Law’s slick CIA operative. They both have a good laugh about it. But!!! But!!! Guess what happens next??!

Paul Feig is a writer/director that makes Adam Sandler look sophisticated. He aims low and largely hits his mark. The jokes in this Bond/Bourne spoof are so broad that Feig may well have written the script using a paintbrush. The exotic, pan-European locations are populated with stereotypes rather than characters (Peter Serafinowitz should be feeling particularly contrite). Even so, McCarthy is not without a certain charm, and she throws herself into some ludicrously improbable action sequences with a chutzpah not seen since Yoda sparked up his lightsaber at the end of Attack of the Clones. There’s a message in there somewhere about women getting ahead in a man’s world, but it’s buried under more cheap dick jokes than an Andrew Dice Clay gig.

To be fair, no one is likely to buy a ticket to this by mistake. If a Melissa McCarthy vehicle directed by the guy who did Bridesmaids sounds like your thing, then you won’t be disappointed. I prefer my comedy with a little more bite and wit, but each to their own. Some people enjoy eating tripe and get an enormous sense of fulfilment from tweeting photos of their dinner. I hate tripe.