My Spy The Eternal City
review by Bobby Blakey
Dave Bautista has made an epic transition from wrestling superstar to not just a wrestler in movies, but a good actor period. He has taken on a great variety of roles from his popular character Drax from the MCU to Dune, Riddick, Blader Runner and so many more. In 2020 he took on the action comedy in the film My Spy co-starring Chloe Coleman that showed a softer side of him while still letting him kick some butt. Now they are reuniting for the sequel My Spy The Eternal City co-starring Kristen Schaal, Flula Borg, Craig Robinson, Billy Barratt, Taeho K, Anna Faris and Ken Jeong with Pete Segal returning to direct.
My Spy The Eternal City follows Sophie’s high school choir that is selected for an Italian tour culminating in a performance for the Pope in Vatican City and JJ sees this as an opportunity to bond with his new stepdaughter, so he volunteers to help chaperone the group through the Venetian canals, across Florence’s renowned bridges and into Rome’s most historic sites. Instead, he finds that he and Sophie have become unwitting pawns in a terrorist plot that could end the world as we know it.
If you saw the first movie then you know it was an entertaining by the numbers action comedy. It didn’t bring anything all that new to the genre, but Bautista and Coleman had such fun chemistry it stepped the film up more than it might have otherwise. The concern with doing a sequel of a film like this is that you must find a way to navigate the same formula with something new without losing that thing that made it work. The dysfunctional relationship between the two that grew into something special was magic. The new film has them a family now and widely changes all the characters based on their growth and things that are in their lives now so that it can keep the momentum alive.
This latest outing was entertaining and followed a lot of the same formula as
expected. Instead of having the secret of the mission they found a way to conveniently get them all together for this trip/mission that is silly to buy into either way, but this is just how these kinds of films work. The unbelievability of bringing the kid into the world of the spy is already a ridiculous premise, but if you buy into it then you are already all in and ready to have some fun. Once again, the reason this film works is Bautista and Coleman. The film isn’t bringing anything new to the genre and plays things pretty the numbers with a lot of it bring kind of generic but is still a fun flick.
The action is often silly, but well executed and fun to watch. Bautista goes all in and looks to be having a blast in the role which really helps it to be a lot more entertaining than I would have expected. He pokes fun at himself and its always endearing and fun when you see a hulking man like himself play up the comedy and sensitive role when they can do it well and he does just that. On the other side you have Coleman stepping up the action pieces and doing a good job with them all while bringing the older teenage issues to the forefront. They are once again great together and the reason this film works on any level.
The rest of the cast are fine with numerous returning cast and new additions. Ken Jeong gets more to do this time around and Schaal is bringing more the same in her new agent role. The big surprise for me was Flula Borg who ditches the strange silly persona as a bad ass assassin, and it works. The story is simple, and the jokes are hit and miss, but through it all it knows exactly the film it is and not trying to be anything else. It leans into the niche of films like Spy Kids, Agent Cody Banks and James Bond to have kicked off its own franchise. It is a fun series that is perfect action comedy for families to enjoy together without having to listen to more singing or nursery rhymes. If you dislike the original then you will likely feel the same way this time around, but if you find the family fun in it then you will have some fun here as well.
Decide for yourself and check out My Spy The Eternal City when it streams exclusively on Prime Video from Amazon MGM Studios.
