Bad Spies

Audrey (Mila Kunis) is pissed off at her ex Drew (Justin Theroux) who suddenly breaks up with her and doesn't even have the decency to answer her messages. But then she learns that the man, who in her eyes was more of a bore, was actually a spy. Now Drew has been killed in action and the last thing he left behind was a USB stick that Audrey and her chaotic girlfriend Morgan (Kate McKinnon) are supposed to hand over to Drew's contact person in Europe. Suddenly, the CIA, killer and mysterious agents get on each other's heels and the two friends stumble from one bloody fat cell to the next…

"Bad Spies" could have been very funny. At times it's the movie, too. But unfortunately, the staging of Susanna Fogel doesn't only lack the right timing (jokes also don't work better when they are explained loudly by the protagonists), but also the right balance between action and humor. Yes, there are a few good laughs and some well staged, amazingly rough action scenes. But even though the tempo is always pressed down, boredom is often the result. That's because the script isn't very good and the two main actresses also don't deliver anything convincing.

Both Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon move strictly within their comfort zones, without even for a moment incorporating anything surprising into their game. Especially with McKinnon the feeling arises that she really can't play anything else than some crazy characters, while Mila Kunis has already shown that she has more to offer than playing Bad Moms or Bad Spies.

Of course there are some parallels to the 2015 comedy "Spy: Susan Cooper Undercover" with Melissa McCarthy, who had a much higher gag density and lived from the wonderfully self-ironic performances of Jude Law and especially Jason Statham. The "Bad Spies" just don't have something like that. The gags are too weak to really pull from the stool and the action isn't gripping enough to make up for this shortcoming. And the screaming of the two spies against their will gets on your nerves after a while. Not a total failure, but a weak comedy with too few highlights. Conditionally worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp