Yesterday evening I was able to catch an early showing of the new 20^th Century Fox comedy, Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Rose Byrne, and Jason Statham.

I live in San Diego greater, so it was a little bit of a hike up to Edwards Mira Mesa Stadium 18, but well worth the drive.

The movie sucker punched me, so I’m going to do the same thing to you. Go see Spy. Not kidding, if you love to laugh, go see this movie. If you haven’t been to the movies in a while, go see this movie. If you have a stick wedged firmly up your rear and need some good humor to dislodge it, go see this movie.

What I love about Spy the most is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. From watching the trailers you get the idea this is a B comedy movie with a star studded cast. This movie is the hot girl who doesn’t know she’s hot – the Laney Boggs from She’s All That. It’s actually an A movie wrapped in a B movie advertising campaign. Underneath the veneer, this is an awesome movie that is jam packed with humor and action while still maintaining a decent enough of a plot to watch without blushing.

Spy is a parody of the spy genre in all regards, but it does it with gusto so it doesn’t seem cheesy. Likewise all the characters are parodies of themselves, or at least parodies of the roles the actors normally play, which makes it hilarious.

Most entertaining of the movie is Melissa McCarthy who plays CIA analyst Susan Cooper along with a dozen other secret aliases. When the undercover identity of all the CIA’s top operatives is exposed, Susan Cooper – an inexperienced and unlikely option – is sent in to retrieve critical information. Susan Cooper surprisingly ends up being more than a match for the task, and Melissa McCarthy is more than a match for the role, and plays it excellently.

Jude Law plays James Bond, on crack. His character Bradley Fine is a well-spoken, well-dressed, highly dangerous flirtatious Englishman. Jude Law could have used his star power to get away with mediocre acting and to gloss over the finer points, but he didn’t. Law seemed to have a lot of fun playing the role and spared no expense on screen making the character likeable and digestible. It was also cool to see him not taking himself too seriously in the role.

Jason Statham plays Jason Statham, on meth. Imagine throwing all of Jason Statham’ previous roles into a blender, and mixing in some meth and 12 cans of Red Bull. That was Jason Statham’s role as Rick Ford, the ultra-macho tough guy anvil jawed Brit who will wrestle a grizzly bear while jumping out of an air plane and then land in the ocean and strangle a great white. But he’s also an idiot. Unlike the others, Rick Ford does take himself too seriously, and it’s hilarious.

Second only to the lead star, is Rose Byrne. Having just watch Byrne in Neighbors with Seth Rogen, it was a complete 180 seeing her again as sexy super villain Rayna Boyanov. The casting director must have told her the role was to play the biggest bitch imaginable, and she hit the nail on the head. I imagine her character as a sort of Elektra King (The World Is Not Enough) dressed as Melissa McCarthy put it, a slutty dolphin trainer. Most impressive was how she spit out her one liners without busting up on camera or even so much as cracking a grin out of the corner of her mouth. The bloopers to this movie will be just as entertaining as the movie.

There was also a fun B line, including the dorky best friend from the CIA, an HR nightmare Italian Spy Perv, the unflappable and snarky CIA director, and of course, 50 Cent.

The commercials make this movie look like it is PG13. It’s not. It’s rated R and between the language, violence, and overt sexual content you should definitely leave the kids at home.

You came for a comedy and you got one, and the cook was nice and gave you a side dish of Grade A action to go along with it. Not only would I see Spy again, I will watch Spy 2 if they ever make it.