I Spy [DVD] [2003]

Former ‘Hill Street Blues’ regular, actress Betty Thomas directs this big-screen updating of the popular Sixties show that starred Bill Cosby and Robert Culp. A stealth fighter, that is invisible to radar and also can become invisible to the human eye, has been stolen and is now in the hands of an underground arms dealer, Gundars (Malcolm McDowell). Federal agent Alex Scott (Owen Wilson) has failed once to get to Gundars and recruits a middleweight boxer, Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy), to infiltrate Gundars camp – Gundars is an avid boxing fan. However, Robinson and Scott are like chalk and cheese and so comic action ensues.
I Spy tried and failed to be Eddie Murphy’s comeback after The Adventures of Pluto Nash. As with his previous turkey, Murphy’s the least of this movie’s problems; his spitfire delivery begs for better plotting and dialogue, and his teaming with Owen Wilson had even more promise than Wilson’s Shanghai comedies with Jackie Chan. But this unfunny hash–bearing no resemblance to the 1960s Bill Cosby/Robert Culp TV series that inspired it–undermines Murphy and Wilson at every turn, stranding them in scenes that play well in isolation but never form a coherent action-comedy whole. It’s not that director Betty Thomas is incapable; she just seems uninterested, going through the motions while Eddie, Owen and Famke Janssen play spy games in Budapest, chasing after a villain (Malcolm McDowell, wasted again) who’s stolen a sleek, invisibility-cloaked jet bomber called the Switchblade. Explosions, shoot-outs, double-crosses… ignore it all, and find what pleasure you can in Eddie and Owen’s aimless banter. –Jeff Shannon