EVER SINCE Paul Feig cast her in Bridesmaids as a sentient fart joke, Melissa McCarthy’s had the odd privilege of becoming super famous overnight and getting worse roles for it. Anyone who’s followed her since Gilmore Girls knows what McCarthy’s capable of, but bombs like Tammy have left her comedic timing and, oh, her acting ability, deeply under-utilized. So I had my doubts about Feig’s latest McCarthy vehicle, the spy-movie sendup, um, Spy. I was pretty sure I was about to witness two hours of one of my favorite actors just tripping over stuff.
Oh, how wrong I was! Right around the moment I realized I’d get to see Melissa McCarthy beat the shit out of lunky Bond villains for 120 minutes, I knew my doubts were unfounded. I also physically could not stop laughing. Not only is Spy funnier than Bridesmaids, it’s funnier than most movies that think they’re funny.