By Troy Ribeiro

FILM: Spy
CAST: Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, Nargis Fakhri
DIRECTION: Paul Feig

Director Paul Feig’s infectiously entertaining, comic spy thriller is more of an espionage spoof than a genre-beaten action-thriller, which one usually imagines with such a title.
Packed with sentiments and passion, it is the story of Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy). She has the skills, spirit and courage of a spy, but her low esteem, relegates her to a desk job at the CIA’s basement office in Langley, Virginia. As an analyst, she is “technically a secretary to an agent”.
Her colleague Agent Bradley Fine (Jude Law), on an international mission, is tracking a stolen nuclear bomb that is soon to be sold by a Bulgarian arms dealer. Desk-bound Cooper constantly guides him, remotely. She warns him of the threats and danger that beset him at every turn making him dodge his enemies with unflustered confidence. She is in awe of Fine and soon develops a soft corner for him.
Unfortunately, the mission ends up in a disaster. The CIA team, headed by Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney), realises that the opponents are aware of all the CIA agents and hence them chasing the mafia would be hara-kiri. So, emotionally drawn to the case, Cooper volunteers to take up the field assignment.
Trailing Raina Boyanov (Rose Byrne), the arms dealer’s daughter Cooper travels from Paris to Rome to Budapest with frumpy undercover identities she is forced to adopt.
The plot, though slightly contrived, gives equal weight to Cooper’s emotional journey, as she rises to the mission’s challenges, gains confidence and proves her worth to those around her. It works brilliantly because of the oddness of finding the unassuming Cooper in awkward situations and surroundings. The circumstances are extraordinary and yet believable. And the tone is tongue-in-cheek, which naturally gives the film a pleasantly affable shade.
Melissa McCarthy, who had earlier teamed up with director Paul Feig in Bridesmaid and The Heat, once again shines with an author-backed role. She displays her comic personality with aplomb. Her transition from an object of ridicule to a vulnerable but effective heroine, with a mouthful of diatribe and uninhibited aggression, makes her simply hilarious.
She is aptly supported by the ensemble cast. Jude Law as the dapper Bradley Fine who reminds you of the character James Bond 007, is charming. He lends the emotional hook for the plot to progress.
Jason Statham as her obstinate and aggressive colleague Rick Ford, who hampers her plans, is persuasive and unintentionally funny with his moves. Rose Byrne as the stoic Raina Boyanov is business-like and Miranda Hart, as Cooper’s nerdy sidekick is over-the-top.
For the Indian audience, Nagris Fakhri in a cameo is impressive. She plays a knife-wielding assassin with style. Her moment of screen glory is the well-choreographed fight scene in the kitchen. She impresses you with her agility. — IANS


Robots on mind

By Haricharan Pudipeddi

FILM: Chappie
CAST: Harlto Copley, Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver
DIRECTION: Neil Blomkamp

Neil Blomkamp became a much sought-after filmmaker after his smashing debut in 2009 blockbuster District 9. But the overnight success didn’t last long as his big budget sci-fi drama Elysium, his second film, turned out to be a disaster. And his latest outing Chappie feels like it’s been made from nuts and bolts of his earlier films and the pieces don’t fit the way they should.
In Chappie, he envisions a world where robots aid police force in bringing down the crime rate. They don’t just aid, but even risk their lives to save their human counterparts. In one such operation, a droid gets severely broken beyond repair.
Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) is the chief designer of the robots that have been successfully assisting the Johannesburg police department in fighting crime and his organisation is proud of his work. But Deon has been secretly working on a programme that will allow robots to have a mind of their own, behave and feel like humans with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). When he pitches the idea, his boss doesn’t approve, forcing him to illegally test it on the broken droid.
Deon’s ambitious plan goes for a toss when he is kidnapped by a group of gangsters, who plan to use him to programme a robot to help them pull off a big heist. Deon reprogrammes the broken droid with AI, and Chappie is born.
Chappie has very little story and whatever it has doesn’t quite engage us. But what’s charming about the film is Neil’s idea to treat humans and robots equally.
When Chappie is first brought back to life, it reacts to its surroundings with fear. Deon calls it a child and says it needs to be oriented. When you forget Chappie is a robot and treat it like a child, you’ll appreciate what Blomkamp tries to address here.
While the gangsters want Chappie to help them pull off a heist, Deon wants it to learn a la humans. In a touching scene, Deon encourages Chappie to paint and read a book about a black sheep.
But these wonderful moments don’t make up for the lack of story. And there’s plenty of awe-inspiring action in this insipid tale which like Neil’s earlier films is set in his birthplace Johannesburg in South Africa. — IANS

‘Surprise’ at morgue

FILM: See No Evil 2
CAST: Glenn Jacobs, Danielle Harris, Katharine Isabelle
DIRECTION: Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska

This sequel to See No Evil picks up just moments after the first’s finale. The crazed killer, Jacob Goodnight (Glenn “Kane” Jacobs), has been skewered through the eye and thrown through a window. Scraping up the gory remains of him and his victims, the ambulance drivers make a rather gruesome delivery to the local morgue.
This puts a real hitch in the birthday plans of coroner Amy (Danielle Harris), who’s forced to work the graveyard shift. But that doesn’t stop the celebration. Amy’s buddies bring spring a surprise for the birthday girl at the morgue. But the “surprise” doesn’t stop there.
The entirety of the proceedings, so formulaically, unfold in the claustrophobic, all-too-familiar locale. The frustratingly repetitive second half seems to revolve entirely of scene after scene of the surviving protagonists running and hiding from Kane’s less-than-compelling villain.
 Unlike the original, which had a theatrical release, the sequel was released direct to DVD.

DVDs courtesy:
Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha