Movie review: The Spy Who Dumped Me
As much as I enjoy Kate McKinnon on Saturday Night Live and her wackadoodle turns in Ghostbusters and Rough Night, she can be - in Justin Theroux's character's condescending words - "a little much".
In her meatiest film role to date as Mila Kunis' oversharing, unhinged and totally dramatic BFF, "much" is an understatement.
So if you don't fancy her shtick, which is turned up to 10 here, The Spy Who Dumped Me will be an absolute pain to sit through.
Admittedly, McKinnon can be quite exhausting, even in small doses, but she hasn't crossed my personal threshold - yet - and she's still responsible for many of the action comedy's funniest moments and one-liners.
She even gets to show off her butt-kicking skills in a trapeze showdown with a scene-stealing killer Eastern European supermodel.
So of course Kunis has to be the bumbling straight arrow in this pairing, but her edge gradually emerges over time.
The "two dumb American women" spark together well enough, as they go from one crazy set piece to another all over Europe, whether it's an Uber car chase or stealing passports from ditzy Australian backpackers.
And for a chick flick directed and co-written by a woman (Susanna Fogel), The Spy Who Dumped Me is surprisingly action-packed, bloody and violent, with the body count hitting the roof in a Vienna restaurant shootout.
The men, rightfully, are mere window dressing.
Theroux is creepy as ever, although he does get an impressive fight sequence at the beginning, complete with fisticuffs, gunplay and explosives.
And for all you Outlander fans, seeing Scottish dreamboat Sam Heughan trade his kilt for a tux for his first big Hollywood flick is a real treat. Objectify him all you want, because he's still as swoon-worthy as ever.
The whole premise of The Spy Who Dumped Me is ridiculous to begin with, but I'm certainly not going to be the one to dump on a female-driven project that is trying to do something different with the genre.
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