ALSO SHOWING
MY SPY (12A)
★★ ★★★
I SPY with my little eye something beginning with F. Formulaic. Fun-filled. Fanciful. Familyfriendly. Froth. Take your pick when it comes to director Peter Segal’s fitful action comedy.
Special Forces operative JJ (Dave Bautista, pictured) struggles to embrace the subtleties of retraining as a covert asset under CIA director David Kim (Ken Jeong).
The military man’s heavy-handed approach to espionage, sporting a faux East European accent that one arms dealer likens to Mickey Rourke in Iron Man 2, allows a nuclear core to fall into the clutches of terrorist Marquez (Greg Bryk).
To redeem himself, JJ undertakes surveillance of Marquez’s sister-in-law, ER nurse Kate Newton (Parisa Fitz-Henley), by moving into the same Chicago apartment block with his smitten technical support, Bobbi (Kristen Schaal).
The bickering duo are ordered to maintain a low profile and avoid causing further embarrassment to the CIA.
Unfortunately, Kate’s nine-year-old daughter Sophie (Coleman) blows the agents’ cover and blackmails JJ into training her as a spy.
The girl engineers a date between Kate and JJ, who acquires a neck scarf after a hasty sartorial makeover by the gay couple (Devere Rogers, Noah Danby) down the hall.
“He got Queer Eyed by Todd and Carlos,” Sophie remarks to her mother, a reference to the TV show.
With the mission compromised and his feelings for Kate blossoming, JJ faces a crisis of conscience that will determine his long-term future in the CIA.
My Spy is bookended by well-choreographed action sequences that play to Bautista’s strengths.
THE HUNT (15)
★★★ ★★ HUNTERS become prey in this satirical social thriller.
Anchored by eye-catching performances from Betty Gilpin and two-time Oscar-winner Hilary
Swank, the showdown between working-class “deplorables” and wealthy “liberal elites” doesn’t stint on the stomach-churning splatter.
Twelve strangers – including car rental company employee Crystal (Gilpin) and conspiracy theorist Gary (Ethan Suplee) – regain consciousness to find gags padlocked to their mouths.
They have been drugged and kidnapped in different states then transplanted to a forest clearing, supposedly in Arkansas.
When rifle shots ring out and a head explodes, the stricken strangers realise the whispers online must be true. They are being hunted for sickening sport by well-to-do Athena (Swank, pictured with Gilpin), and her cohorts.
While some of the 12 blunder into traps, Crystal demonstrates surprising tactical nous to retaliate against her attackers.
The blood-soaked battle royale shifts to a remote manor house where hunters gather with an overpriced bottle of champagne on ice to toast an end to the carefully orchestrated slaughter.