The original “My Spy” from 2020 wasn’t quite the best movie but it surely managed to be fun and different from the mindless family action comedies we have been spoon fed all our life. At least Dave Bautista and Chole Coleman had good on screen chemistry and Kristen Schalk was a quirky yet charming supporting actress. Streaming also happened a few months after the onset of the lockdown so it definitely felt like a good distraction during such difficult times.
Fast forward roughly four years and we have “My Spy The Eternal City” and this one takes the fun storyline into quite a bit darker territory. This raises the question: Who is this movie for? Definitely not adults as it’s, for lack of a better word, stupid. But at the same time, its appeal is far too mature for kids. This sequel directed by Pete Segal, who co wrote the script with returning writers Erich and Jon Heber, seems to be more bloody with disturbing sexual humor. I’m hardly one to toy with propriety but Schaaf’s character lands a joke about a specific part of the Italian statue body that genuinely shocked me. No parent should ever have to explain such things to their children.
At a point, a 16 year old boy is being threatened by an armed person who’s stalking him across a sunflower field; a minute later, he appears with a frosty gaze witnessing an Italian sunset. Coleman and Schaaf’s characters are stomped and kicked in the face, which seems unnecessarily violent. Perhaps the thought process was that since Coleman’s Sophie is 14, then the audience will also be a slightly older age and will be able to handle a more heavy fare. Whatever the case may be, it feels misguided and, more importantly, from a wider entertainment perspective, it simply does not work.
This time, Bautista’s CIA agent JJ is living in Northern Virginia and is trying to raise Sophie, a freshman in high school while her mother, a nurse is away on business. (There’s a lot of horrible exposition at the top about what these people are up to these days: “I’m just happy the CIA allowed you to rest.” That sort of thing.) A retired assassin packing a 38 caliber is finished with his days of killing. These days he makes scones. So when he gets a chance to escort Sophie’s school choir to Italy on tour, he cannot stop himself from wondering how hard could this be managing a choir group all over the world.
Sophie, of course, gets drawn into the situation, which complicates matters as it is hard to drool over the jock with a crush, Billy Barratt. At the same time, her best friend Collin (Taeko), who has feelings for her but doesn’t express them, also goes with them for the school excursion. Those scenarios are very akin to those of John Hughes’s movies where the right one was there all along but these situations are rather lacking in the regard of character development to incite any degree of concern as to whether she stays with either of them in the resolution.
In addition, Schaaf’s character Bobbi goes to Italy with JJs’ supervisor and attempts to prevent the antagonist from detonating the Vatican. Other new cast members include Anna Faris who was hard to recognize due to her portraying a brunette while Craig Robinson did not have much opportunity to do anything except for the closing credits. Despite all hopes to find comic diamonds from cast like this, none seems to be materializing; there is just simply far too much happening including, “The Eternal City” which stretches from mock mindless violence to overly sentimental slush.
She has got a strong sense of comedy while he is large but has an untouchable charm. Everyone who interacts with a teenage child must have experienced the sudden onset of their unexplainable rudeness. However, this too will surely pass like many unwanted sequels already have.
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