Popular director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat) tackles the spy genre with the aptly titled Spy, which sees Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) as a desk-jockey for the CIA, working as a liaison for one of the agency’s super-spies Bradley Fine (Jude Law). Cooper is a terrific analyst, but an underachiever and a joke to her fellow operatives, but when Fine is apparently killed in action by mob queen Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne), and the identities of many top CIA agents are compromised, Cooper must leave the safety of her desk and go undercover to expose the plot of Rayna and her arms dealer associate (Bobby Cannavale) before it’s too late.
Both serious and in comedy, the spy genre is already loaded — the freaking sequel to Cars was a spy movie! — and 2015 alone will see the release of new instalments of James Bond and Mission: Impossible films, amongst others. The question is whether Spy contains anything to make it stand out from an already crowded sub-genre. The answer is yes, Spy does hold it’s own in many ways, but it may not be what you were expecting.
The Wolverine – Domestic and International Trailers
Promotion for James Mangold‘s The Wolverine was modestly quiet for a long time. But this week we have seen a range of promotional materials trickle out including stills, posters, and the obnoxious ‘tweasers’: the micro teasers for the trailers. Then in one fell swoop Fox has released the US domestic trailer as well the considerably different international trailer. Lucky us!
This is the sixth big screen appearance of Hugh Jackman‘s popular X-Man, and by the looks of these trailers we will be getting more of a personal journey in this outing: the film is based on Chris Claremont and Frank Miller‘s popular story-arc from the 1980’s which sees our hero in Japan and is the basis of a lot of the characteristics that made old Logan such a popular superhero.
Besides an appearance from Famke Janssen‘s Jean Grey, keep expectations low for surprise appearances by another other X-characters.
The film also stars Hiroyuki Sanada, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Svetlana Khodchenkova, and Will Yun Lee as the freaking Silver Samurai!
Will The Wolverine hack its way to box office supremacy on the film’s global release on July 25? Despite the final quality of the film, and taking in to account the lack of competition on that date, the answer is probably.
Deep Impact versus Armageddon. Dante’s Peak versus Volcano. Here we have the 2013 equivalent: the battle of Olympus Has Fallen versus White House Down — both action films dealing with a takeover of the White House and the peril of the US President.
With Olympus Has Fallen only a week away, there will be a few months breathing space between films: White House Down is being released locally September 5.
Which movie will win the battle of the White House? Personally, I’ll take White House Down‘s director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) and stars Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx over Olympus Has Fallen‘s director Antoine Fuqua and stars Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, and Aaron Eckhart.
Olympus Has Fallen will probably already be available on home video by the time White House Down hits Australian theatres. Will the gamble of leaving such a large gap pay off, or will people be weary of the similar premise by then?
Elisa Iannunzio
Luke Miksa
Sorry I'm Late.com 