** - Opening this Friday
Eddie Murphy's latest attempt to prove that he has not gone down the comical tubes is in silver screen form yet again in "I-Spy." Filmgoers are used to seeing Murphy hogging most of the dialogue as different characters in both "Nutty Professor" movies, but this time he teams up with Owen Wilson ("Meet the Parents," "Zoolander") and his intriguing nose.
"I-Spy" is based on the 1965 landmark television series that starred Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, and was the first TV show to include an African-American in a leading role. But do not go see this movie expecting anything resembling the program. The only things they have in common are the title, the black and white buddy team, and the fact that they both involve spies.
Directed by Betty Wilson, "I-Spy" is one of those movies that you watch knowing full well it doesn't matter if you pay attention or not to the plot ?Ae_ you will still get the funny parts. But the storyline is a joke in itself. Professional boxer Kelly Robinson (Murphy) is a pompous nimrod that's so narcissistic, he brags about himself in the third person. But when a dangerous and technologically advanced jet is put on the market in Budapest by a mysterious man named Gundars (Malcolm McDowell), a U.S. government secret agency wants to send a special agent in to recover it.
Conveniently enough, Gundars is throwing a star-studded party to celebrate Robinson's boxing match, so the U.S. agency decides to add special agent Alexander Scott (Owen Wilson) to Kelly Robinson's entourage. Scott is a seemingly good agent, but he's a clumsy lovesick puppy when he works with fellow agent Rachel (Famke Janssen). Upon meeting Scott, Robinson immediately belittles him, being the huge celebrity that he is.
And so on and so forth. These plot contrivances are funny at first, but soon become tedious and boring. Robinson and Scott spend an awfully long time arguing about everything that has to do with the mission. Predictably, Robinson seems to care less about the mission at hand even though the President of the United States asked for his help in the beginning of the movie. Predictably, Robinson wants to do something the big shot celebrity way and Scott always wants to do it the special secret agent way. And perfectly, it all works out in the end and makes for some chuckles in between eye rolls.
Throughout the entire movie, it's a mystery why Owen Wilson is even there. Of course there's no deeper meaning behind his character, he only exists as Murphy's insult punching bag. In other words, it's the cool-black-guy-making-fun-of-the-lame-white-guy show.
But there are a few funny moments in the movie. The best occurs when Robinson tries to help Scott get Rachel in bed by secretly feeding him lyrics to Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing." That moment was hilarious enough to make the entire theater laugh out loud. Unfortunately, the rest of the film has only a few funny lines.
Barring that scene, the only other good element "I-Spy" had going for it was the action. There were lots of fiery explosions, exciting car chases and cool spy gear; but all the flashiness can't impress someone who mistakenly wants to see a movie with a funny script and realistic plot.
"I-Spy" shouldn't be characterized as bad, just dumb. Murphy and Wilson are mildly funny as a duo, but at certain points in the movie the intelligent viewer can't help questioning the validity of it all. Factors like the FBI sending celebrities to far off parts of the world to make the United States safer, and the presence of invisible fighter jets allows this slightly funny movie to become a little too hard to swallow.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
