MY SPY
**
Dir: Peter Segal (12A, 102 mins)
Like Arnie (Kindergarten Cop), Vin Diesel (The Pacifier) and most recently John Cena (Playing With Fire) before him, hardened fighter Dave Bautista attempts to soften his tough guy image with a family-friendly comedy involving precocious kids. Bautista is a CIA agent, recently demoted and his new assignment is undercover, keeping a family under surveillance with new partner Bobbi, the winningly quirky Kristen Schaal. Nine-year-old daughter Sophie (a sassy Chloe Coleman) soon rumbles them and, in exchange for not blowing their cover, she gets Bautista to train her to be a spy. Life lessons ensue, Sophie gets more street-smart and Bautista shows his emotions and grows to like her, before an action-packed denouement. It’s a familiar story, well-executed but offering little in the way of new twists. Bautista has comic chops, as Guardians Of The Galaxy has already proven, and he helps move moments along with some amusing slapstick and game self-deprecation. A Ken Jeong cameo helps but the script is full of well-worn clichés and the whiff of earlier failed musclemen family comedies is heady.
Opens Mar 13
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