Directed and Written by Paul Feig
Release Date: 5 June 2015
Running Time: 119 minutes
Editor’s Rating: 2.5 neverending fat jokes out of 4


Guys. You know what’s hilarious?
Guys? Know what?
Fat people. Oh my god, Fat people are the greatest. Always trying to do their fat people things. It’s like they think they’re people! Oh man, and it’s great to see fat dudes run. Or a fat lady do, well, anything: eating, walking, talking, acting like she has a sense of self-worth that’s constantly being violated by her peers and superiors… all classic fat people jokes.

Look, I get it. Fat people are just like other people, except they’re funnier because they jiggle a whole lot more than regular people do when they do things. But for the love of John Candy, people, can we not do a movie where the only facet of a fat woman’s personality is that she’s fat? Melissa McCarthy is actually a talented comedian, and this script tries its hardest to make McCarthy’s character equal to the other people in the film, but it still doesn’t help. Most of the jokes are about how she’s a square hole in a spy-flavored round peg.

And the sad part about it is that it’s actually a really funny movie. As I said, McCarthy is playing a person, who if she weren’t fat, she’d be a female Walter Mitty discovering she actually was James Bond. It would be a makeover flick that kicks butt. But for everything that McCarthy does, for all the bones that the script throws at her, she never gets past that whole “loveable loser” shtick.

I so want to like this movie. So bad. The comedy is solid, the actors are really playing their roles well, especially Jason Statham, who plays a giant idiot who is somehow a CIA field agent. It’s rare to see Statham do comedy, and he performs rather admirably. Jude Law’s pretty good too, but he’s just doing his usual “charming guy” routine. Another really good actress is Miranda Hart, who plays McCarthy’s best friend and fellow loser. She can stand toe to toe with her and is actually really funny in her own regard RE: 50 Cent.

So yes, there’s so much to like about this film, but one ugly thread that keeps coming back again and again. I want so bad to give this film a better rating, but I just can’t. Ah well. Guess I’ll just go back to watching Animaniacs.