Most action-comedies are too heavy on the action, and too light on the jokes. It’s hard to effectively blend the two, but it can be done. See: the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man attacking New York City in Ghostbusters, or literally all of Spy, the last great action-comedy. The Spy Who Dumped Me might not have Jason Statham’s “Face/Off machine,” but it does star the always-welcome Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon, so there’s the comedy. Now how about the action?
Yes, that will do.
Directed by Susanna Fogel, The Spy Who Dumped Me is about two best friends, Audrey (Kunis) and Morgan (McKinnon), who “get involved in an undercover mission after Audrey’s unassuming ex-boyfriend shows up at their apartment with a team of deadly assassins on his trail.” The action for the film came during a lunch meeting between Fogel and David Iserson (they co-wrote the screenplay) when one of them suggested, “Broad City meets Bourne.” From there, they expanded. “Our jumping-off point was, What would we do if we had to run from the cops in, like, my Toyota Prius?” she said. “What would we do if we were confronted with an assassin? We’d probably make fun of something he was wearing.” Or start talking about having sex dreams with Minions.
The Spy Who Dumped Me — which also stars Justin Theroux, Sam Heughan, Hasan Minhaj, Ivanna Sakhno, and Gillian Anderson — opens on August 3.
