Dave Bautista has returned to our screens as JJ, the CIA operative who ends up training a kid to become a spy.
No bells ringing? That may be because My Spy: The Eternal City’s 2020 prequel didn’t have the best chance to make a splash, as one of the films caught up in the covid cinema catastrophe.
However, it did become popular on Prime Video. And the sequel is on its way too, having peaked at number one on Prime Video in more than 90 countries according to Flixpatrol.
In the first My Spy film, Bautista’s JJ is cajoled (blackmailed, basically) into training a 9-year-old into becoming a spy, in exchange for keeping his identity safe.
In My Spy: The Eternal City, the pair end up teaming-up again. Sophie is on a school trip to Italy when a terrorist scheme to blow up the Vatican is revealed.
Peter Segal takes on the directorial role yet again. And, in Segal’s 30-year career of Rotten Tomatoes certified rotten movies, My Spy: The Eternal City takes the dubious honour of his lowest-rated film to date at 19% fresh.
The Guardian gave the film an unenthused 2-star review, calling My Spy: The Eternal City “a charmless action comedy" with Bautista "as a CIA tough guy in overprotective dad mode. Bautista’s delivery looks practically comatose at points, like a grizzly bear with tranquilliser dart hanging out of its neck.”
Decider says it’s “lame and desperate and formulaic” just like the original.
Multiple reviews bring up the uneven tone, as the film jumps between identities as a family comedy and an action-packed spy movie.
“The tone is all over the place as “The Eternal City” tries to encompass that kind of humor along with zany slapstick, wholesome coming-of-age moments, pleasing travelogue scenery and serious peril,” says RogerEbert.com's 1.5/4 review.
None of the major film critics liked My Spy: The Eternal City, it seems, but some other outlets liked it well enough.
Mama’s Geeky says the “comedy almost always hits, the story is great, and the action is incredible.”
You may feel similarly if you liked the original My Spy. But, well, most did not.
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