Director – Brett Kelly (My Fair Lady, Homicycle)
Starring – Mark Courneyea (Werewolf Fever), Sacha Gabriel (My Fair Zombie), Lawrence Evenchick (Raiders of the Lost Shark)
Release Date – 2014
Rating – 3/5
Tagline – “When it comes to action…He’s your last resort”
So, I have to come clean about something. I tend to enjoy all genres of film but horror will always be my home. With that being said, I can not get into the whole spy film thing. Never could and I doubt I ever will. I consistently find myself bored as fuck regardless of how much action is going on. The story either bores me or completely over does it resulting in me screaming at the screen.
I was recently sent the obviousSkyfall parody simply titled Spyfalldirected by Brett Kelly who directed the films My Fair Zombie and Homicycle. I enjoyed both films so I decided I would give it a go even though it was out of my typical genre to perform reviews on. Thank you Alternative Cinema for sending me the film to review.
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows Mike Hawk (Courneyea) who is called into duty to pick up where a former agent left off once he exploded. His new task is to intercept something that could kill a great deal of people from an underground kingpin who also runs a legit apple cider business. He takes on this task and rushes out to save the day. He has to team up with Agent Pi (Gabriel) in order to take him down and prevent him from taking over the world.**Spoiler Alert**
When I say I don’t like spy movies I really mean I don’t like the ones that take themselves seriously. These all follow the same cliches and result in the same film just with different action sequences and spy gadgets. That is why I am a fan of Johnny English (Yea, I like that movie so eat a dick). That film does what it sets out to do and that is make fun of spy flicks like James Bond while making fun of themselves. This is key at making a parody film work. Spyfall follows the same examples set forth by Johnny English, for the most part, and delivers on the camp.
The acting in this one is campy and easily associated to what you would see in the most famous parody series of all time, Scary Movie. Our main character, Mike Hawk played by Mark Courneyea, is good at playing stupid. Sadly, characters like this get on my nerves quick. He does redeem himself with literal jokes but those can only carry him so far. The remainder of the cast does well especially at keeping the gag where they take thing literal going. This created several laughs throughout the film. I do want to take a moment and comment on how fucking hot Sacha Gabriel is. The viewer doesn’t notice it in My Fair Zombie due to the special effects make up but in this film she is smoking!
The story for this one is more of the same thing we have seen before especially with the Bond films and even Johnny English. The only thing that pulls this one up is the dry humor we get. Though the film is not something I would call hilarious, it is something I would call funny. It has some light laughs but is full of dry humor that only young kids and old people would find funny.
Finally, those of you out there expecting me to go over the kills scenes and gore will be disappointed. As you have already been told, this one is a comedy spoof of the spy action genre. No gore for those of you wanting it here. Overall, Spyfall is a film that has some laughs but could have had a lot more. The acting is cliched along with the story but if you are looking for a simple story and a few chuckles then this one is right for you. Check it out.
