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I Spy

I Spy

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $13.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: No reason to own this
Review: This movie is barely a comedy, it is really two people playing roles, and only marginal at best. On one hand you have the brash, egocentric boxer, and on the other hand you have the bumbling, inept James Bond wannabe. Both characters are so steretypical there is absolutely no humor to be found. The story is boring and trite, and the only thing I found myself watching was the DVD counter to see how it would be before I was put out of my misery. There is NO chemistry between Wilson and Murphy, and I feel they are both great comic actors in other movies.

Don't do it to yourself! Watch the TV series!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Eddie Murphy is Backl!
Review: This is one of those movies where many other reviewers got it wrong. I think they were looking for a reason to bash Eddie Murphy. Shame on them.

When watching a comedy, I've noticed, it helps if you are in the mood to watch a comedy. I figure that I was and many of the other reviewers that gave I Spy only tepid ratings were not. How else could they give this movie only three stars.

I Spy was the funniest movie I've seen since Road Trip in 2000,(which also had tepid reviews) and one of the five most hilarious movies I've ever had the pleasure to view in my Forty-seventeen years.

Plot

It seems the latest Air Force fighter, a plane that has a cloaking device, has been stolen by the test pilot and sold to an International Arms dealer, Arnold Gundars,(Malcolm McDowell) who in turn, will most likely sell it, to bidding terrorist organizations for mega bucks. The fictitious Bureau of National Security has assigned the case to second tier, super-agent Alex Scott,(Owen Wilson) who heads a team sent to Budapest, Hungary to find the missing plane

Obnoxious, loudmouth but undefeated middleweight boxing champion, Kelly Robinson,(Eddie Murphy) who happens to have a title defense scheduled in Budapest is also recruited for the mission not as a spy but to provide cover for Scott. Unfortunately Robinson, who at first doesn't get along with Scott and whose ego knows no limits, doesn't get his role and decides he's also a secret agent and then the fun begins.

Just to make things more interesting there are a couple sub-plots with the first string super agent, Carlos,(Gary Cole) who gets all the top of the line gadgets and miniature gizmos while Alex gets stuck with cumbersome hand me downs and Alex's not so secret crush on associate agent, Rachael,(Famke Janssen) which was the basis for one of the funniest scenes in the movie.

Actors

Kelly Robinson, Eddie Murphy
Alex Scott, Owen Wilson
Arnold Gundars, Malcolm McDowell
Rachael, Famke Janssen

Carlos, Gary Cole

Director

Betty Thomas

Conclusion

Whenever I read a negative review of what I consider a good Movie / Book, I wonder what the motivations were. This movie had two or three negative reviews for every positive one. Here are the things I read most in the negative reviews, with my comments; No resemblance to the TV series(who cares? It was funny as hell), a buddy movie like ........(so what?), a weak script(yeah, but it wasn't really an action movie!), Black, Eddie Murphy played Stepin Fetchit to White, Owen Wilson(coulda fooled me, I thought Wilson was Murphy's straight man) and Murphy was flat and continued his stretch of losers(I'd like to know what movie they saw, cause I was rolling in the aisle).

In summation, I thought the actors did an excellent job, the directing was good, the stunts were very good and the humor was excellent! Now, I'm not really a comedy movie person so I haven't viewed every comedic movie ever made to compare this to, but I thought it was a riot and that's what counts!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Greatest Eddie Murphy Movie EVER
Review: By looking at this movie you would say i wouldn't waste my time.
But this movie is top notch. A great storyline, great acting by Murphy and Wilson, and funny like you wouldn't believe. Definetely buy this movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Femme-fatale Famke...
Review: ...was the reason I rented this, & in that leather outfit she looks almost like her Jean Grey character in the X-men movies (the character in which I know her best). This movie also was my introduction to Owen Wilson, & I love that scene in which he seduces Famke by singing a song by Marvin Gaye (one of my favorite singers!), with Eddie Murphy tele-coaching him. I also enjoyed the DVD commentary, in which the director & a few other people comment on how this movie parodizes the Bond films by "humanizing" the protagonists, writing mistakes into their behavior. A few times here & there, they even stumble over pronouncing the Dutch beauty's name--"Fam-keh?" No! "Fahm-kee?" No! "Fahm-keh?" Right on target! (No pun intended) Anyway, if there's one reason anyone oughta see this, she is it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good movie!
Review: It's a good movie with Eddie Murphy and Jessica Famk-Janssen. It's more funny than suspense movie. So, it's more a comedy than a suspens/polar movie. It's not the crème de la crème of movie but it's funny. I recommend this to the people who like suspens/comedy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: For the lighheated
Review: Don't take this movie too serious. Just enjoy the humor. I laughed through the whole show. Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson are great together. They must have had a blast making it. Not a lot of bad language or nudity. I bought the movie and when there is nothing on of quality I pop it into my DVD player. If you want a good laugh- watch it, rent it or buy it!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: nothing like the TV show but a great duo:Wilson and Murphy
Review: sometimes dumb and annoying and other times a lot of fun and great. Wilson and Murphy are great as always and its better than Murphy's Pluto Nash stinkbomb he did that year as well. some funny moments include Wilson trying to love up the sexy Famke Janssen and where Murphy spills out his emotions int he sewer, just upraorous. and Gary Cole is great and that mexican guy

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: not what i expected
Review: this looked like the dumbest movie ever (disregarding Pluto Nash), yet i allowed myself to be talked into renting it with a bunch of friends and was pleasantly surprised. it can be quite enjoyable if you see it with a bunch of right type of friends, which i did.

i know this is an odd recommendation, but i have to make it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: another abysmal TV retread
Review: *1/2 Eddie Murphy fails to revive his sagging career fortunes with "I-Spy," a dreary, inept and uninspired attempt to bring the popular 1960's TV series to the big screen. Murphy and Owen Wilson take on the roles initially filled by Bill Cosby and Robert Culp, and, while both actors are game players, they have been ill-served by a script - concocted by no fewer than four writers, if you can believe it - that is tired, unimaginative and just plain lousy (to put it mildly). Watching this film is quite a depressing experience, actually.

Not doing much to test his limits here, Murphy plays his typically sassy, wiseass persona, this time as a less-than-convincing world famous boxer who, for some utterly inexplicable reason, is recruited by the U.S. government to partner up with Owens, a second rate secret agent who, like Rodney Dangerfield, feels that he don't get no respect from his fellow spies. The two unlikely partners are sent on a mission to Budapest to track down a bad guy who has commandeered some kind of stealth fighter jet for his own nefarious purposes (at least I think that was what the plot was about, though, frankly, I don't think I was paying enough attention to really tell).

We're supposed to find the banter between these two mismatched, bickering secret agents to be witty and entertaining, but most of their lines end up falling flat. The stunts - which basically involve the use of all sorts of high-tech gadgetry and the endless dangling of our intrepid heroes from precarious heights - feel like leftovers from every unsuccessful spy spoof ever made.

The unutterable failure of "I-Spy" is a surprise in a way, since director Betty Thomas has had some previous success at converting old TV series into clever, memorable movies, the prime example being, of course, "The Brady Bunch Movie." But for that film, Thomas really thought about the potential of the material and designed a vehicle that turned a completely "unhip" enterprise into something far more endearing, contemporary and relevant than any halfway sensible person could have had any reasonable right to expect. With "I-Spy," on the other hand, she has simply gone through the motions of making a cookie-cutter spy parody that is utterly devoid of wit, imagination and fun. Crass commercial moviemaking doesn't get much more dispiriting than this.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Can things get any worse?
Review: This has less than nothing to do with I Spy which was cool and clever. Even Roger Ebert will have a tough time giving this a thumbs up.

Two stars because Eddie manages to get off some funny lines while Owen Wilson sleepwalks--and who can blame him.

What next, Hollywood? The Man From U.N.C.L.E. starring Adam Sandler?


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