Back in the sixties, spies were all the rage. It seemed like in television and movies, we had more secret agents per capita than every other country combined. Most just tried to copy James Bond, but in 1965, one series broke the mold. I Spy starred up and coming comic Bill Cosby with Robert Culp as a pair of highly educated agents carrying out their assignments under the cover of being a tennis pro and his trainer. While staying more down-to-earth than Bond and his clones, I Spy stood out for its real wit and intelligence, with a unique rhythmic banter between Cosby and Culp.
In Hollywood now, we have a new rage. Actually, it’s been going on for a while: remaking old TV shows into new movies and hoping nobody notices that’s what’s going on. Most of these remakes miss what made the original series worth watching in the first place, and the new movie I Spy owes far more to Bond movies and “Buddy Cops” than its original did. But it does update the single best element by casting Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson, and the charm these two generate carries the movie through almost all of its rough spots.
Now Kelly Robinson is a professional boxer, and he isn’t highly trained. Instead, he’s what you’d expect Murphy’s version of a boxer to be, clever, maybe, but not really all that smart. Mostly he’s full of himself, and when Owen Wilson’s Alexander Scott realizes that the government will force them to team up, he couldn’t be more disgusted.
A top-secret military plane has been stolen by the evil Arnold Gundars (Malcolm McDowell), an effete Englishman living in Budapest. In an opening sequence just to the left of Bond, Scotty bungles the rescue of the plane, extracting some information from a traitorous pilot before accidentally getting him killed. Gundars turns out to be a boxing aficionado, and since champion Robinson and G.W. Bush are buddies, the president calls the boxer in to help get Scotty into the home of the pseudo-Hungarian evildoer. (It’s the 21st Century, after all, we can’t actually come out and say the guy might be Hungarian; oh, how I miss SMERSH.)
Really, that’s most of the plot. Scott has an understandable crush on a fellow agent, played by Famke Janssen, and a rivalry with a superspy, Carlos (Gary Cole). But neither of those things really matters, as even the main story is just an excuse for Murphy and Wilson to do their thing, whatever that might be. And it works. Both actors have different styles of rambling, and when the two get going in combination, the audience barely has time to do anything but laugh.
Murphy sputters a bit at the beginning, trotting out some old bits, but once he gets past the Stevie Wonder impersonation (wildly out of place), the only thing old is his cockiness. For the first time in years, he also earns the right to have it. Robinson may have the confidence of Axel Foley, but not the brains, and Murphy lets that shine through. Easily distracted by spy gadgets and women, the boxer succeeds in spite of himself.
More laid back, Wilson’s Scott fixates on ideas, tugging at them like a bulldog. A sedate, slightly stoned bulldog, perhaps, but you get the picture. Hearing that Rachel bonded with Carlos on a stakeout, Scott will do anything he possibly can to turn the Budapest assignment into one. No actor throws lines away better than Wilson, and sticking him in a Bond plot was an overdue idea. Never quite suave or even comfortable, nobody seems more surprised by Scott’s successful actions than himself.
Clearly, much of this movie pins all its hopes on these guys being funny. One chase scene lasts at least ten minutes, and it wouldn’t work if not for Wilson and Murphy constantly discovering something new in it. As it is, you still notice that it’s one looooong chase.
Though the action does drag a bit, it’s an admirable effort by director Betty Thomas. An odd choice for such a movie, perhaps, Thomas has mostly done low-key verbal comedies. (And a previous TV remake – the occasionally brilliant The Brady Bunch Movie). Stepping up to the big bucks (?) of an action-comedy, she’s not quite sure what to do with fight scenes and explosions, but may get better.
As you might expect, I Spy clearly looks poised to be a franchise. And Murphy, at least, could use another good action series, one that allows him to be the best of what he is, not what he thinks he should be (call it the Michael Keaton syndrome). Having actually failed to make an actual Bond series, Sony has worthy competition with this.
