L'espion qui m'a dompée

The pairing of Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon in an R-rated action comedy would seem like the perfect late-summer escape. Both actresses have proven for years that they're game for whatever comes their way, and their contrasting styles held the promise of giddy, combustible chemistry. 

If your expectations are low enough - like around your ankles - it's possible to laugh at a couple of the film's tossed-off punch lines and cartoony action sequences and feel like you got your money's worth.

It's a bit worthy of Lucy and Ethel. And while, overall, The Spy Who Dumped Me is no classic in that sense, one sees appealing glimmers of a larger female-buddy-comedy world ready to be explored.

And then there's the doe-eyed face-puller Kunis, who only rises above blandness in her scenes with McKinnon. The good news is she rises amazingly high.

Does a spy-game action comedy really need more action than comedy? No, but Kate McKinnon's whiplash talent could go far on the big screen.

SNL veteran and costar Mila Kunis are left stranded in this flat espionage farce that should have stayed undercover.

Even still, The Spy Who Dumped Me is never especially painful to sit through. At worst, it's just comedy falling flat, and as off-key as McKinnon seems to be here, she's never grating. 

Jamais, pas une seconde, les deux principaux personnages, et leur quête, ne nous ont été attachants. Voilà une preuve que ce mélange des genres n'a pas eu, pour nous, l'effet espéré. 

Un pastiche inoffensif de James Bond et The Pink Panther, tourné aux quatre coins de l'Europe sur l'impulsion d'un budget inversement proportionnel au talent mis à contribution.