Peter Saenz
Stupid-funny popcorn flick that anyone with a sense of humor should see.
THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME
Written by: Susanna Fogel and David Iserson
Director: Susanna Fogel
US Release Date: August 3, 2018
Production Company: Lionsgate and Imagine Entertainment
Cast: Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, Gillian Anderson, and Sam Heughan
What You Should Know:
As the movie title suggests, the lead character is dumped by her boyfriend. What she later learns is that her ex-boyfriend is actually a government spy on the run. Now, she must try to figure out her ex-boyfriend’s secrets before all of the bad guys he’s wronged try to take her out instead.
What You’ll Find Out: (Spoilers)
Audrey (Kunis) is a hum-drum girl who works at an off-brand Trader Joe’s supermarket. Her only sense of livelihood is her childhood best friend and roommate Morgan (McKinnon), who keeps her on her toes with her rosy, yet somehow jaded, way of seeing the world around her. One night out at a bar with her BFF, Audrey literally runs into a handsome stranger named Drew. (Theroux) The two immediately hit it off and begin dating. After some time though, Audrey is dumped by Drew via a text. (cue Sex and the City episode “The Post It Always Sticks Twice”) Infuriated that Drew won’t answer any of her many phone calls or texts to explain himself, Morgan suggests to her that she should burn all of his things left in her apartment. As she does, Audrey texts Drew one last time that she is burning all of his things in the hopes that he will finally call her back. It works as Drew finally calls her and stops her from burning all of his possessions with the promise that he will see her the following day. Still angered but now happy to get some closure, Audrey goes to work the next day, but is then kidnapped by government agents. They ask her if she knows where Drew is. She tells them no and asks why she’s being kidnapped. They inform her that Drew is a spy working for the CIA and that he has something very important that they need. She doesn’t believe them at first, but when they show her photos of Drew out in the field killing people, she suddenly becomes panicked. Before letting her go, they make her promise to contact them if he ever does try to reach out to her.
Frantic, Audrey goes into her apartment and tries to tell Morgan that she was kidnapped and that Drew is a spy, but she’s unable to fully relay the message as she sees that Morgan has brought home a douchy guy she met the previous night at a bar. When the guy says that he is going to take a shower, Audrey finally gets a moment to talk to Morgan but Drew dramatically appears at one of their windows. Shocked, they let him in and Audrey immediately goes into the fact that not only did he break up with her via a text, but that he was a spy the entire time. He’s surprised that she knows, and asks her who told her. When she tells him that government agents told her, he tells her that they aren’t government agents but criminal bad guys looking for something he has. He then takes a small trophy from his possessions box and tells Audrey that this is what they’re after. Confused, Audrey doesn’t get a word in as the apartment begins to get shot at from people outside the building. Drew tells Audrey and Morgan to get cover as they hide underneath the kitchen table. Seeing that he’s shot, Drew tells Audrey that if he doesn’t make it out alive, that she needs to get the trophy to a person named Verne at a particular restaurant in Vienna the following day. Just then, Morgan’s one-night stand appears, completely naked, and shoots Drew in the neck. Morgan knocks him out from behind as Audrey now sees that Drew is dead. They leave the apartment and drive to safety. Morgan convinces Audrey that they should fulfill Drew’s last wish and take the trophy to Vienna. Audrey reluctantly agrees and they attempt to contact Verne.
When they get there, they see one of the men who kidnapped Audrey the day before. He says that he’s Verne and that if she doesn’t hand over the trophy that everyone in the room will begin shooting one another and everyone will end up dead. Audrey doesn’t believe him as Morgan discovers that the real Verne is a cleaning woman she saw in the lady’s room. Due to Morgan’s fumbling, everyone in the restaurant does begin shooting each other as they all try to get the trophy from Audrey. The government agent manages to take out the majority of the people in the room as Audrey and Morgan escape. Now thinking that the trophy isn’t really a trophy, they break it open to see a flash drive is hidden inside. Scared, Morgan calls her neurotic parents for help. They tell her that one of their friends lives in Vienna and that he can take them in. When they arrive, the family friend lets them in and makes them dinner. Unsettled by what she ate, Audrey goes into the bathroom to puke. In the bathroom, she discovers a dead man in the bathtub. The family friend then uses a syringe to drug Morgan and he throws her into the bathroom with Audrey. Knowing that they only have a few moments left, Audrey hides the flash drive and tells her kidnapper that she flushed it down the toilet. Angered, the kidnappers take the girls to an empty warehouse and are tortured. They are saved by the male spy from the restaurant and taken into MI6. There, they discover that the spy’s name is really Sebastian (Heughan) and that the agency is lead by a no-nonsense woman named Wendy. (Anderson)
MI6 is angered that the flash drive was flushed and inform the girls that they will be taken back to the U.S. Sebastian is also reprimanded for saving the girls as he went against his direct supervisor to do so. He’s assigned to drive the girls to the airport and given 4 months suspension. On the way to the airport Audrey thanks Sebastian for saving her, both in the restaurant and from the warehouse. She then tells him that the flash drive wasn’t flushed but that she hid it on her person. (you can use your imagination here) They then take the flash drive to a public library and discover that it contains the location of every agency on the planet. Sebastian’s male supervisor shows up and tries to take the flash drive from them to sell to shady government agents. They manage to stop him and figure out a way to meet up with his buyers to take them in and get Sebastian back in MI6’s good graces. When they get to the location, they discover that Drew is still alive and is trying to get the flash drive back. Audrey figures out that Drew was a bad guy all along and refuses to give it to him. Again, through some bumbling on Morgan’s part, they manage to take both Drew and the buyers into custody, thus saving the day. With a new sense of purpose, both Audrey and Morgan join MI6 and become their newest field agents.
Overall Thoughts: (Spoilers)
The film’s title is a total take off of the iconic 007 film The Spy Who Loved Me, but thankfully the similarities pretty much end there. This film is it’s own animal, though, I have to say, there were a few similarities to the previous 2015 action/comedy spy film Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy. In that film, the central character has a bumbling side-kick. So does this one. Also in spy, the main love interest is thought to be dead but later is revealed to be alive. So does this one. And lastly, by the end of the film, the central character is graduated to becoming a strong spy of her own. Same happens in this one. Though those points ring pretty similar, there is enough story plot and characterization to make these two distinctly different in many other respects.
The film also did seem a bit confusing in the way time kept going back and forth between the present and different points in the past. You get used to it after a while, but it was a bit jarring at the beginning.
Gillian Anderson looked nothing like she did in the old X-Files episodes, and that’s a good thing. She was totally badass and did a great job at playing a no-nonsense government head. Funny enough, I do remember reading somewhere that when actress Kate McKinnon (Morgan) was younger that she had a huge crush on the X-Files star. With that in mind, how cool was it to see them working together and to have Kate’s character totally gushing over the actress’ character too?
Overall, I loved this film and would recommend it to anyone who has a good sense of humor. The film doesn’t have a lot of depth or meaning, but it wasn’t meant to. It is what it looks to be: a funny/stupid popcorn action comedy with funny gags and dirty jokes. It’s over the top and unrealistic, but still an entertaining film that’s enjoyable. Oh, and be sure to stay through the credits as there are two different additional scenes played.
Rating: 8/10
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