Weak story hurts otherwise funny ‘Spy’

Posted on August 10, 2018

By MARK VIOLA

When I saw the trailer for “The Spy Who Dumped Me,” starring Mila Kunis (“Bad Moms”) and Kate McKinnon (“Ghostbusters”), my first thought was: “Mila Kunis in a spy comedy? I’m definitely seeing that.” My second thought was: “Kate McKinnon is in it too? Well, I’m still going to see it.” My third thought (yes, I think a lot when watching trailers; I’m a movie reviewer) was: “This sort of reminds me of ‘Spy,’ the Melissa McCarthy comedy.”

Well, Kunis is great in this movie, once again playing more or less the straight woman surrounded by chaos, which she did in both hilarious “Bad Moms” movies. McKinnon is solid but really needs to find a way to tone down her energy.

“The Spy Who Dumped Me” is really less “Spy” and more “Knight and Day” or “The Killers,” in which a civilian girlfriend finds out her boyfriend is a secret agent. Fortunately, this movie gives Kunis a lot more to do than the female leads in the other films. What I do wish this movie learned from “Spy,” however, is that to be a really good spy comedy, you need to be at least a decent spy movie as well, and that is this film’s biggest weakness.

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