Baby Bunny

I’m starting this post with a non sequitur of cuteness. Joanie, you’re welcome!

Last Friday, Anne and I went to the movies together. It has been a long time since we last did that. Way back in the land before time, or at least children, we would frequently do this, but not so much lately. I wanted see either the new Mad Max movie or the new Melissa McCarthy comedy, “Spy”. Anne made a face at Max, so “Spy” it was. I know this doesn’t sound like much of a choice, but Anne had earned some gift cards at school that were really only good at the Esquire, which it being summertime now, only serves this type of fare. Besides Rotten Tomatoes had respectively rated both movies 98% and 95% fresh, which is pretty good. “Spy” opened that Friday and since the Esquire’s renovation to ‘living-room seating’, the theater tends to sellout more frequently than in the past. I booked our seats online and downloaded the scan code to my phone. This all worked perfectly. We ended up sitting closer to the screen than Anne likes, but like I said seating was limited and this was all that was left. This was Anne’s first time at the Esquire since its renovation and like me on my first time, she had to be shown how to recline her seat. I did so by fully reclining hers, which earned me another face.

“Spy” is Melissa McCarthy’s third successful movie role, following both “Bridesmaids” and “The Heat” and her first lead role. She has been paired with director Paul Feig in all three shows. In this movie she plays Susan Cooper, a CIA agent consigned to a vermin-infested Langley basement. The vermin are a running gag throughout the movie that actually works well. Supporting actors include Jude Law as the suave Bradley Fine, Jason Statham another CIA agent who plays a bumbling parody of his other action film roles and also Feig regular, Rose Byne as the villain, Rayna Boyanov. Also cast are Allison Janney (West Wing) as Cooper’s boss and Miranda Hart (Call the Midwife) as Cooper’s only true work friend.

I thought the movie was OK, Anne somewhat less so. McCarthy’s struggles against her plus-size stereotype is wearing thin. The whole Bond-like send up for the film was fun. The opening credits were very much like something out of a Bond movie. The best parts of the movie for me were when McCarthy is playing straight man for her fellow actors. Statham steals every scene that he is in. Now that we have exhausted most of her Esquire gift cards, maybe we should do this movie date night thing again, only this next time try to shoot a little more highbrow.