It’s one of those strange weeks where the same film turns up twice. Paul Feig’s Spy is a comedy about a female intelligence agent who is plunged into a scary, violent world. And so is this deadly serious and deadly action thriller from director James McTeigue. It’s the same thing. But with no laughs.
Milla Jovovich is a charisma-free zone playing Kate Abbott, a US embassy official in London who uncovers a 9/11-style plot to import terrorist explosives experts into America with a view to blowing the bejeepers out of the Big Apple on New Year’s Eve. Poor Kate finds herself blamed for a killing that wasn’t her fault and instead of reporting back to base, “goes rogue” in a baffling and boring manner. Pierce Brosnan, his mouth set in a rictus snarl, plays a sinister assassin called The Watchmaker.
It’s a lumberingly dated kind of spy thriller, convoluted without ever being intriguing – and an insufficient number of bangs for your buck.
