Cast: Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Sam Heughan, Justin Theroux

Director: Susanna Fogel

Synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes: Audrey (Mila Kunis) and Morgan (Kate McKinnon), two thirty-year-old best friends in Los Angeles, are thrust unexpectedly into an international conspiracy when Audrey’s ex-boyfriend shows up at their apartment with a team of deadly assassins on his trail. Surprising even themselves, the duo jump into action, on the run throughout Europe from assassins and a suspicious-but-charming British agent, as they hatch a plan to save the world.

Review:

After the beginning of 2018 brought us fantastic comedies such as Blockers and Game Night, the rest of the year has shown us comedies that have either been perfectly average or well-below that level.  Would The Spy Who Dumped Me compete for the title of top comedy of the year or would it attempt the same level of mediocrity as the movies that came before it?  Sadly, The Spy Who Dumped Me is just as mind-numbing as the other forgettable comedies this year.  While McKinnon has a few good moments, the story is unoriginal and bland, the characters are forgettable, and the film just feels like a shameless summer cash grab from start to finish.

The film follows two best friends Audrey (Kunis) and Morgan (McKinnon) after Audrey’s ex-boyfriend Drew (Theroux) revealed to her that he is a CIA agent and that people are hunting them down for a piece of information that international terrorists are looking for.  This brings the two friends to Europe where the consequences of their actions catch up to them and they need to find whatever exists inside them to survive the people coming after them.  For the most part, this film’s plot is exactly what you would expect it to be from beginning to end.  I do not think there is a single point in which the film takes anything other than the easiest and laziest joke possible to move the plot along.  I was also really surprised with the amount of bathroom jokes made during the movie, as these are usually jokes you would see in a movie aimed at men instead of one aimed at women.  Outside of that, I never really found any of the characters that exciting or motivating. Audrey has a storyline about how everything she tries at she never finishes, but this plotline comes out of nowhere and does not help us identify with her any more than we previously have.  The only thing that really stands out in a positive way is that McKinnon has a few moments of excellence sprinkled in a movie that otherwise would have been a bore from beginning to end.  She has really mastered the timing and delivery of her jokes and is the only person who does not have to rely on the weakest material possible to gets laughs from the audience.  Outside of her though, neither of the male leads were interesting and are pretty much just your standard action/comedy leads from any other movie out there.  The supporting character that I wish we got to see more of was Nadedja (Ivanna Sakhno), as I felt her character could have provided some good situational comedy if used in a way that showcased how different she is from Audrey and Morgan.  Instead, we get the same type of story and comedy that you can see in any other comedy this year, leaving The Spy Who Dumped Me as nothing more than a 117 minute time-killer.

Overall, while not the worst comedy of 2018, The Spy Who Dumped Me goes out of its way to make sure it is not the best.  If you like forced jokes about feminism and poop, this may be one of your favorite movies of the year, but those jokes did not really land for me.  This film does what all other uncreative comedies do, they know their intended audience and stick to material that know only those people will like.  While that might work out well for those people, for anyone else this can be quite a chore to work through barring a few moments from McKinnon where we see what this film could have been.

Overall Score: 4.5/10