Thanks to an ever-increasing profile in many of today’s top blockbusters, Dave Bautista has, like Dwayne Johnson, managed to transition into movies from his wrestling background with a reasonable ease, although like Arnold Schwarzenegger he has appreciated the limits he has and been careful to select those roles that he can manage.
Three decades ago, Schwarzenegger looked beyond the gun play glamour of films like COMMANDO, RAW DEAL and THE TERMINATOR to add a more gentle approach to his film career with Ivan Reitman’s KINDERGARTEN COP, in which he played John Kimble, a cop who has to go undercover to track down a missing mother-of-one who has absconded with $3 million of her ex-husband’s money to Astoria, Oregon, but finds himself out of his depth when he has to take the role of a substitute teacher when his partner (Pamela Reed) falls ill with food poisoning.
Bautista seems to have followed the same kind of template in his latest film, MY SPY, directed by Peter Segal.
Bautista plays JJ, a former Special Forces soldier who now works for the CIA under cynical head of section David Kim (THE HANGOVER‘s Ken Jeong). Eager to prove his worth after a botched mission in the Ukraine, JJ is forced to team with nerd-ish CIA techie Bobbi (Kristen Schaal) and go undercover to do surveillance on a key lead, single mother Kate (Parisa Fitz-Henley) and daughter Sophie (Chloe Coleman) who is the widow of an arms dealer.
JJ and Bobbi plant cameras in the apartment the family own, but after Sophie discovers a camera, she investigates and discovers where the pair are surveying them. Smart enough, she blackmails JJ into becoming part of the team.
However, the brother of the deceased (Greg Bryk) is keen to reunite himself with Kate and Sophie as they seem to possess plans which could lead him to vital data that could cause a major incident in the USA. Life does get complicated after all…
Fusing elements of the aforementioned KINDERGARTEN COP, coupled with John Badham’s STAKEOUT, MY SPY is still fun enough thanks to the chemistry between the characters. It’s predictable entertainment and Bautista certainly is trying hard to get away from the brawny characters he has personified so far.
The plot points on the curve match what audiences expect and pop culture references to classic films from cinema past are seen here, with the likes of NOTTING HILL getting a look in early on.
Schaal provides a fair foil to Bautista in a standard ODD COUPLE-type relationship and acquits herself well.
If you liked films like SPY, then this one will be right up your street. It is designed to be critic-proof for discerning families who just want to have a good time on a Friday or Saturday night. It will certainly be very popular with children and teenagers upon home video release and Bautista – like Johnson – is making waves nicely all the same.
What do you think of the casting for the movie? Will you be watching it when it arrives in cinemas? As always, we like to know your thoughts, so leave a comment below, tweet us @filmandtvnow or drop us a comment on our Facebook page.
