I Spy (2002)

I Spy is a 2002 American action comedy spy film starring Owen Wilson, Eddie Murphy, Famke Janssen, and Malcolm McDowell. Directed by Betty Thomas, it is an adaptation of the 1960s television series starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby.

The film was a major critical and box office failure. for Eddie Murphy, it was his 3rd box office bomb of 2002, behind Showtime and The Adventures of Pluto Nash.

I Spy (2002) I spy with my little eye: a very bad movie Genre: Action Comedy Directed By: Betty Thomas Produced By: Mario Kassar Andrew G. Vajna Betty Thomas Written By: Cormac Wibberley Marianne Wibberley Jay Scherick David Ronn Based On: I Spy by Morton S. Fine and David Friedkin Starring: Eddie Murphy Owen Wilson Malcolm McDowell Famke Janssen Cinematography: Oliver Wood Distributed By: Columbia Pictures Release Date: November 1st, 2002 Runtime: 97 minutes Country: United States Language: English Budget: $70 million Box Office: $60.3 million

Plot

A professional athlete, Kelly Robinson, joins forces with government agent Alex Scott to help recover a missing jet.

Why It Sucks

1. Extremely bad grasp of the source material.
   • For example, in the TV show, both Alex Scott (Culp) and Kelly Robinson (Cosby) were government agents and pro tennis players. However, in the movie, both roles have been reversed (Scott is Caucasian and Robinson is an African-American) and Robinson is not an agent, but a professional boxer and an annoying comic relief.
   • Both Scott and Robinson act nothing like the series' counterparts.
   • The original series features both comedic and dramatic moments. The film version only focuses on the comedic aspects, removing everything that made the original I Spy series great. Speaking of comedy, this has some very, very, VERY poor attempts at humor.
2. Eddie Murphy is a poor and rather obnoxious casting choice for the role of Kelly Robinson, Owen Wilson is both lifeless and wooden as Alex Scott, Malcolm McDowell is completely wasted as Arnold Gundars, and Famke Janssen is bland as Rachel Wright.
3. Poor story.
4. Completely unlikable characters.
5. Bad action sequences.
6. Throughout certain parts of the film, Kelly Robinson speaks in third person, which at times, can be very annoying.
7. At one point in the film, Kelly Robinson spoils a mission by setting off the alarm because he felt bored guarding a room, which shows rather how ignorant he can be.

Reception

The film received negative reviews from critics. It currently holds a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the general consensus being, "Insipid and mirthless, I Spy bares little resemblance to the TV series that inspired it."

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MrAnonymous

3 months ago

Score 0

"Weather data... they might kill him tell him I spy in the way of an accident?"

"Men? But ssion is also available, setter with firework problems"

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