3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): My Spy

2020, Peter Segal (Get Smart) -- Amazon

I knew Kent had seen this movie, but TBH I recall him being more favourable. We only ended up watching this because we saw the trailer for the second, and it got a few chuckles out of us.  

JJ (Dave Bautista, Bladerunner 2049) is a spy, but not the subtle kind. It's almost as if the elevator pitch was just, "Imagine you have a spy, but it's Dave Bautista." There is nothing subtle about Bautista. Anyway, the character is the kind that usually ends up killing all the henchmen during an operation, and that pisses his boss (Ken Jeong, Avengers: Endgame) off. As punishment, he is assigned a babysitting mission, watching over the relatives of a arms dealer who hid the plans for a nuclear weapon before he was murdered, by his own brother. Nine year old Sophie (Chloe Coleman, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) catches onto their game almost immediately, and blackmails JJ, and his tech Bobbi (Kristen Schaal, All Nighter), into ... well, being her friend. They all become fast friends, with JJ attracted to Sophie's mom. But that doesn't sit too well with his boss, who tries to pull him off the mission, until the evil uncle shows up, and we get to have a final boss battle.

In these kinds of movie, i.e. the incredibly light, accessible, action comedy, the actual plot is hand-wavey thin. The "meat" of the movie comes in the charming centre, where JJ and Sophie bond via hijinx. I was kind of surprised that Bautista pulled it off, but it worked for me and elicited more than a few chuckles, that is, when I wasn't playing "spot Toronto". He balances well against Coleman. But as usual, Schaal just irritated the fuck out of me in every scene she was in. 

Yeah yeah, sure, you still are capable of not-saying-much and actually doing 3 relatively short paragraphs. And no this one doesn't count.