Film

Spy

Name: Spy
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
Released: 2015
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Miranda Hart

Spy is Melissa McCarthy's finest hour: a mousy CIA analyst pulled from her desk and thrown into the field, swapping cubicle drudgery for gunfights, disguises and increasingly filthy insults. Paul Feig directs with real affection for the Bond formula even as he mocks it — the stunts are genuine, the one-liners merciless, and McCarthy proves she can do action as well as comedy. Loud, quick, very funny.

TMDb rating

6.8

If you liked this

Bridesmaids2011

The film that proved McCarthy and Feig were a genuine comic engine — messier, sadder and funnier than Spy, with McCarthy stealing every scene as the gloriously unhinged Megan.

But It's a wedding dramedy at heart, not an action film — no gunfights, no globe-trotting, just people behaving badly at a bridal shower.

The Heat2013

McCarthy and Sandra Bullock as a slobby cop and an uptight FBI agent forced to partner up — the same insult-comedy rhythm as Spy, with Feig again directing at full tilt.

But The plot is thin filler between set pieces, and the odd-couple dynamic is broader and cruder than anything in Spy.

Kingsman: The Secret Service2015

If Spy's gadget-and-disguise spy-movie love appealed, this is the sleeker, bloodier cousin — a working-class kid recruited into a Bond-style secret service, played with real style and ultra-violence.

But It swaps McCarthy's warmth for something colder and far more violent, and the humour leans juvenile rather than character-driven.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Killing Eve2018

Same premise flipped to television: an underestimated woman turns out to be extraordinarily good at dangerous, secretive work, and the show has as much fun with disguise and tradecraft as Spy — just with the laughs sharpened into dread.

A cat-and-mouse thriller between an MI6 officer and a psychopathic assassin, played with the same wicked wit and unpredictable violence — stretched across a series, with women running the whole show on both sides of the camera.

But It gets much darker and stranger as it goes, and the humour curdles into genuine menace rather than staying broad.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery1997

The spy spoof that set the template — Mike Myers sending up Bond's vanity and gadgetry decades before Spy did the same to its glossy CIA world.

But Its jokes are dated and repetitive by design; the shagadelic '60s schtick can wear thin fast.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery poster

True Lies1994

Arnold Schwarzenegger as a secret agent whose wife has no idea what he really does — a big, brilliantly staged action comedy Spy clearly owes a debt to.

But It's a product of its decade, with humour and gender politics that haven't aged gracefully.

21 Jump Street2012

Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill go undercover as high schoolers in an action comedy that shares Spy's trick of hiding real stunts and genuine stakes inside broad, filthy jokes.

But It's high-school set and deliberately juvenile, with none of the globe-trotting glamour of Spy's world.

Get Smart2008

Steve Carell's desk analyst gets promoted to field agent almost by accident — the same fish-out-of-water spy premise as Spy, played gentler and goofier.

But It's tamer and less quotable than Spy, with jokes that rarely go for the jugular.

Central Intelligence2016

Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson trade on scale and charm the way McCarthy does — a CIA agent and his old classmate stumble into a globe-spanning plot, loud and likeable.

But The plot machinery is generic, and the laughs come mostly from star chemistry rather than sharp writing.

The Nice Guys2016

Not a spy film, but Shane Black's buddy comedy has the same DNA — real detective-noir plotting wrapped around big, profane laughs and a mismatched pair carrying it.

But It's 1970s LA crime, not espionage, so anyone wanting Spy's globe-trotting glamour will be disappointed.

North by Northwest1959

Spy's comic engine — an unlikely person forced into the spy game, surviving on wit rather than muscle — is a direct descendant of this film's blueprint, right down to the elegant set-piece structure.

An ordinary man mistaken for a spy gets swept into a plot of disguises, double-crosses and increasingly absurd set pieces — Hitchcock treating espionage as high comedy decades before Spy did.

But It's black-and-white-era pacing and old-fashioned wit; nobody expecting modern slapstick or profanity should come near it.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy2011

Same machinery of tradecraft and identity that Spy mines for jokes — disguises, cover stories, office politics inside an intelligence agency — but here every lie has real weight, showing the tragic version of the same job.

The same world of case officers, cover stories and betrayal that Spy plays for laughs, told here with total seriousness — a slow, exacting Cold War puzzle about what espionage actually costs people.

But It's deliberately opaque and unhurried, built for patience and rewatching rather than the quick, loud pleasures Spy delivers.