The Spy Who Dumped Me: Not terrible, but not great either

I have been a fan of Mila Kunis since she illegally joined That 70's Show way back when. There are a lot of reasons why this is the case and I have to admit that a lot of it isn't because of her acting abilities - it is because she is soooo pretty.

But she doesn't really star in many things these days so when and action / comedy film popped up on the main page of my Netflix menu, I figured I would go ahead and give it a go.

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On the other hand, I've never really been a fan of Kate McKinnon - there is something about her that just annoys me. That being said, she did alright in this film as well and since she is in more of a support role I guess she didn't really have a chance to get under my skin like she normally would.

The film is all about Audrey (Kunis) whose boyfriend recently dumped her and she is celebrating her birthday in a bittersweet way and her best pal Morgan Freeman (McKinnon) and yes, that is really her name in the film, is trying to make her feel better about getting dumped. What Audrey doesn't realize is that her boyfriend is actually a CIA agent who only dumped her in order to protect her from backlash from his missions that he is carrying out overseas. Doesn't sound terribly fun yet does it? Well that's ok because the action sequences that the film starts with makes up for it.

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Audrey and Morgan end up getting roped into the spy game anyway and well, there wouldn't be much of a film here if they didn't. Unbeknownst to Audrey, her ex had left something very important at her house and the contents of this item are what the terrorists or something are after to begin with. The story takes a bunch of twists about who the actual bad guys are many times, too many times to be honest. They use this plot mechanisms at least a half dozen times too many if you ask me to the point where it just gets old.

I wouldn't really call this movie terribly funny because I only laughed a few times throughout the entire thing but the action is pretty solid even though we all know how this is going to pan out once the action begins. You can kind of guess the entire storyline just by seeing the trailer.

That doesn't really matter though because it is still entertaining enough that I didn't look at my phone for more than a few times when the action lulled.

For me, the best character and actor in the entire thing has a really minor role, but I will be looking for her in the future.

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The young girl remains unnamed for most of the film, but she is an assassin / gymnast whose name we find out later to be Nadedja and she is played in a terrifying yet cute at the same time way by Ukrainian actress Ivanna Sakhno, who I have never heard of before now but will look forward to seeing in the future.

One thing I didn't like was how easily Audrey and Morgan transition into the spy role despite having no experience or training in this realm but it is the age of feminism (which is actually referenced in the film) so of course, they have to be this way.

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I think if you wanted to watch an action / spy movie / comedy film that is truly top-notch I would instead go for the film Spy starring Melissa McCarthy because that was just a laugh riot. This one got a few giggles out of me but that was about it.

One major issue with anything that Mila Kunis is in is that since she is basically the only voice actor for Family Guy that uses her real voice, I can't see her in anything without thinking "Shut up Meg!"

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This is probably something that is going to haunt Kunis for the rest of her career because it is kind of hard to take her seriously when all I can think of is her role in one of the best animated comedy series of all time (in my book it is the best.)

Should I watch it?

I would say that most people will probably get some enjoyment out of this but like I said before, go watch Spy first because that is the crème de la crème IMO as far as this genre is concerned. It too is also on Netflix for most regions at the moment for most regions.

Otherwise I think this movie is pretty OK and worth seeing despite the predictable nature of the plot-line and the presence of Kate McKinnon, who actually fits into this role a lot better than I thought she would. If anything, this is one of those movies that you can have on in the background while you are doing something else because the plot isn't really so important especially since it is evident what is going to happen at the end of it all right from the start based simply on how the characters are introduced.