Amazon Prime Video (Canada)
Spoiler Alert
My Spy with my little eye is a story comparable to Jackie Chan’s Spy Next Door. Both involve a CIA operative trying to maintain his cover while dealing with kids. In this latest take, there is only one tween and she’s one smart cookie. Sophie (Chloe Coleman) discovers J.J. (Dave Bautista) and Bobbie, his tech support (Kristen Schaal), are monitoring her family. She only has mom and has to be one tough cookie if they are to enjoy some kind of family life. It’s tough when she has made no genuine friends in school. The two moved back to America to begin anew after Dad died some time ago. Neither knew about his secret life, and nor did they know of what he hid in the “family” closet.
Unearthing this particular truth can lead to problems; the information in how to make a miniaturized nuclear bomb is stashed somewhere in all those boxes and the terrorists J.J. is tasked to stop wants them.
Most of the movie is about J.J. waiting for the bad guys to show up. He doesn’t know when and if they will appear. Much of the time spent is on spotlighting the chemistry between Coleman and Bautista as a good cop, bad cop and inserting the prerequisite sitcom moments. Bautista gets to show off his comedic chops quite well. This film works well enough to highlight how he fares as leading man material instead of a supporting character, like in Guardians of the Galaxy.
The screenplay is very typical for the genre, and if I had to choose between which film I liked more, I’d be leaning towards Jackie. He’s just a big kid at heart, which makes for less contrast than seeing another former wrestler deciding to be a full-time actor. Bautista has the charm to be leading man material, and I can’t wait to see what he’ll star in next. I’m hoping that in the next The Expendables movie, the big three can face off against each other!
3 Stars out of 5