I Spy film review

certificate_12A

I SPY

I spy with my little eye something beginning with B. Bland? Boring? Banal? All three adjectives certainly apply to Betty Thomas's misfiring revamp of the hit '60s TV show I Spy, which paired Robert Culp and Bill Cosby as undercover operatives investigating international espionage. This big screen version teams Owen Wilson and Eddie Murphy as the unlikely crimebusters, caught up in a flimsy plot in modern day Budapest.

Special agent Alex Scott (Wilson) is one of the US government's top spies, often going undercover to catch his prey. However, he has never really been given the chance to shine and has always lived in the shadow of suave and debonair James Bond-esque operative Carlos (Gary Cole)... until now.

Alex is assigned his most dangerous and high profile mission yet. He must retrieve the Switchblade, America's most technologically sophisticated reconnaissance aircraft which has fallen into the hands of notorious terrorist and arms dealer Arnold Gundars (Malcolm McDowell). US satellites cannot locate the Switchblade because of its state-of-the-art cloaking device, which renders the aircraft invisible.

Aided by beautiful undercover operative Rachel (Famke Janssen), Alex will pose as an associate of egotistic middleweight world boxing champion Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy), who has been invited to fight in Budapest at a television fight attended by Gundars. Hopefully, the terrorist will lead Alex straight to the stolen plane.

Unfortunately, Alex and Kelly clash from the word go, and the arrogant boxer has an unnerving ability to get himself and his undercover companion into trouble. Thankfully, Rachel provides a welcoming shelter from the barrage of bullets, grenades and rockets. If only Alex could tell her his true feelings.

Director Betty Thomas (Dr Dolittle) tries in vain to meld the verbal comedy of a buddy movie with the eye-popping thrills and spills of a traditional action film. Unfortunately, the formulaic and poorly paced screenplay doesn't give her enough to work with.

Stunt sequences are mildly diverting, albeit rehashed from countless Bond adventures, and there's a pleasing running gag about Alex always being lumbered with the oldest and least effective gadgets. Janssen vamps for all her worth and Murphy and Wilson raise the occasional smile with their bickering, but once the comedy ends and the motorcycle chases begin, I Spy is deadly dull.