TownRootGuy
This may be Gary Cole's best flick but since I can't remember anything else he's been in besides, 'Office Space', that's not really saying much. The other big names in this have all had much better films. It has outstanding eye candy, decent action, some FX, a great cast AND, while they don't land all their jokes, they do slip in enough funny to leave you feeling a little punch drunk. This movie is exactly what you should expect from Wilson and Murphy. I enjoy it enough to watch it every 2 or 3 years.
kelliedeep
The direction of this movie was really appalling. There were many parts of the movie where a good director could have tweeked this up to be very good.Wilson and Murphy were great in their roles. I liked the whole idea of the movie and it did have some funny scenes, but overall it just left me hanging. It needed far more pizazz but was sadly lacking. The script could have been much better. The idea was good but the script and the terrible direction made this movie into a single movie and obviously not worth a sequel.It could have been so much better and it could have spawned some sequels but for the faulty direction and a script that was not worked on properly.
SnoopyStyle
Alex Scott (Owen Wilson) is a second tier American spy. He is tasked to retrieve the Switchblade, a prototype invisible stealth fighter, from Arnold Gundars (Malcolm McDowell). Superspy Carlos (Gary Cole) is too recognizable to do the job. Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy) is a brash loudmouth champion boxer. Scott works with Robinson to track boxing fan Gundars before he can sell the plane. The duo is joined by Famke Janssen.Owen Wilson and Eddie Murphy are both great comedic actors. They have good chemistry together having fun trading punchlines. The problem is the serious story. The comedy works better than the thriller. I have to admit that I never saw the TV show. So I have no idea what they're attempting to replicate. Maybe it was an advantage to not have any expectations at all.
rrandcoyote
Obviously the creators of this film did not care for the original show. If they had, they wouldn't have gone so far out of their way to alter it beyond recognition.Kelly and Scotty were suave, urbane, competent. Neither one of them was James Bond. They never stopped into the spy center to pick up their gadgets.Kelly did NOT have a posse, a bevy of bi-atches or a private airplane with his name splattered on the side, and he did not refer to himself in the third person. AND, he was a WHITE tennis player, not a black exhibition boxer. (I guess white men can't jump, so they made the black guy the athlete.) Robert Culp was incredibly sexy but did not refer to himself as "Agent Double Oh Nine and a Half". I mean, ewe! But, these are all elements of this film, which for some reason bares the name of the series and heists the character names.I don't think I would have hated this movie so much if it weren't pretending to have anything to do with the classic series. If it were a stand alone flick about a couple of spy guys, then, so what. But, as it is, it's basically an affront to the original "I Spy". Was their only research a poster or something? Because, the original show is available on DVD, so it's not as if it's gone from the planet.It brings to mind the horrific "update" of the "Wild, Wild West", a Razzie Award fav.I don't have any problem with black people updating these characters and stepping into the roles. But, do they have to do it so badly? Kelly and Scotty were never goofy, or grossly incompetent. (Ok, so they walked into a couple of fists along the way. It was subtle comedy, not this over-blown mess.) This Kelly and "Alex" are hopelessly off the mark.Updates can work, (Scooby-Doo, Addams Family, Bradey Bunch) but there has to be SOME respect for the source material, even if it's parody. How can you parody something you've never bothered to see.And gawd, this movie makes me love Culp and Cosby even more than I already do!
AD
