SECOND-RATE 'I-SPY': A REMAKE WITHOUT A COS.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic DO YOU LIKE the sound of ``Kelly Robinson''? You'd better if you're planning to sit through ``I-Spy'' - or ``I Spy''; the distributors don't seem to know whether they want to sell this generic espionage comedy with an added dash or spell the title the same way that the 1960s TV series it barely resembles did. But they are sure they like that name, Kelly Robinson. Eddie Murphy Edward "Eddie" Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an Academy Award nominated, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor and comedian. He was a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1984, and has worked as a stand-up comedian. says it about every 30 seconds in the movie. That's his character, a loud- mouthed, egotistical, middleweight boxing champ who, at the request of none other than George W. Bush, agrees to help a second-rate secret agent (Owen Wilson's Alex Scott Alex Scott can refer to:
That's because, except for two uproarious sequences in the middle of the movie, there's not a lot else here to engage one's attention. The plotting is so generic that the villain played by Malcolm McDowell Malcolm McDowell is a British-born actor, probably best known for his portrayal of Alex in A Clockwork Orange. Biography Acting career McDowell began his professional life serving drinks in his parents' pub and then as a coffee salesman (the latter job may as well have been played by Roddy McDowall Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (September 17, 1928 – October 3, 1998) was an English/American actor. Biography Early life McDowall was born in Herne Hill, London, to Thomas Andrew McDowall, a Merchant Mariner of Scottish descent, and Winsfriede L. for all the sinister distinction he's permitted to project. Some running gags have a witty basis - Scott feels threatened, agent status-wise, by a confident showboat showboat. In the early 19th cent. entertainment was brought by boat to the pioneers that settled along the western rivers (especially the Mississippi and Ohio) of the United States. At first companies only traveled by boat, performing on land. called Carlos (Gary Cole This article is about the actor. For the footballer, see Gary Cole (footballer). Gary M. Cole (born September 20, 1956) is an American actor, known for numerous roles, including the television series Fatal Vision, The West Wing, ) who gets all the smaller, cooler spy gadgets - but take too long to pay off. And while Murphy is untouchably energetic with the comic riffs and Wilson smart as always in the neurotic retort department - and that's the way we like them best - they only really work as a comic team in those great central set-pieces, one of which involves methane gas and the other Famke Janssen in her underwear and a high-tech duet of Marvin Gaye's ``Sexual Healing.'' Individually, both lead actors play into stereotypes, Murphy of the swaggering, African-American athlete and Wilson the romantically insecure, overanalytical white guy. To each actor's credit, they sometimes explode the cliches better than their characters do the bad guys' defenses. Director Betty Thomas Betty Thomas (born July 27, 1948) is an American actress and director in television and motion pictures. She was born Betty Thomas Nienhauser in St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated from Ohio University (in Athens, Ohio) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. , who teamed Murphy with talking animals in the first ``Dr. Dolittle'' remake, doesn't stage a lot of the action stuff very well. But she has ideas; one high-speed chase through Budapest has a car-carrier component that, in theory, is hilariously inventive, but is put together too frantically to achieve all of its comic potential. Somewhere in Hollywood tonight, Bill Cosby William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr., Ed.D. (born July 12 1937) is an American actor, comedian, television producer, and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a vanguard role in the 1960s action show I Spy. is frowning. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what Robert Culp Robert Martin Culp (born August 16, 1930 in Oakland, California), and a 1947 graduate of Berkeley High School, is an American actor, best known for his work on television. is doing, but I'll bet money he isn't going around calling himself Kelly Robinson. I-SPY - Two stars (PG-13: violence, language, sexual situations) Starring: Eddie Murphy, Owen Wilson, Famke Janssen, Malcolm McDowell, Gary Cole. Director: Betty Thomas. Running time: 1 hr. 36 min. Playing: Wide release. In a nutshell: Two riotous scenes halfway through this otherwise mirth-impaired action comedy make the film barely worth sitting through. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Owen Wilson, front, and Eddie Murphy can't escape a script beneath their talents in ``I-Spy.'' |
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