I-Spy

Reviewed by:
Paul Ulane

We can all agree that it’s about damn time a comically mismatched duo swooped in to save the day, and Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson are paired up to do just that in I-Spy. (Kind of like Murphy did with Nick Nolte in 48 Hours and with Robert De Niro in Showtime, and like Wilson’s brother Luke did with Martin Lawrence in Blue Streak, and…) Superagent Alex Scott (Wilson) and middleweight world champion Kelly Robinson (Murphy) bang heads when they’re sent off to Budapest to get back a stolen spy jet for the U.S. of A. The pairing is still surprisingly funny, although Murphy here channels his Beverly Hills Cop character Axel Foley (funny the first time, but not so much as a rehash job). Top it all off with some stunts and lame action sequences to ruin the rest. The hot-as-all-hell Famke Janssen puts in an appearance as a spy, and Malcolm McDowell fills in the sinister villain slot. Neither are featured enough to have an impact, though Janssen does get down to her skivvies at one point. There are definitely some laugh-out-loud moments—too bad most of them come unintentionally from the fight and chase scenes. Murphy pulled this off much better with 48 Hours back in ’82. He should have stopped there.