Spy Intervention (2020) – Film Review
Director: Drew Mylrea
Cast: Drew Van Acker, Poppy Delevigne, Natasha Bassett
Certificate: 15
By Roger Crow
When a covert super spy suddenly meets the woman of his dreams, he abandons his adventurous existence and settles for the security of suburbia, revelling in the quaint existence he’s never known.
A year later he is bored, though he refuses to admit it. His old secret agent friends enact a “spy intervention,” convincing him that if he returns to his old life, the adventure will enliven his listless marriage… and maybe even save the world in the process.
There’s a lot to like about this bright and breezy comedy. It has the feel of a sixties caper like Matt Helm or In Like Flint, with the flourishes of a Wes Anderson movie: animated backdrops and model planes standing in for the real thing.
“Good job with limited resources”
It ticks over and few scenes outstay their welcome. Yes, it was made on a tight budget, and those green screen backdrops do tend to annoy at times. The cast are pretty good with Poppy Delevigne helping sell the premise, but maybe the reason I got bored was because it was a just a little too pleased with itself. There was no real sense of tension, especially during a mountain-climbing scene which was clearly shot in a studio, TV Batman style, so the actors pretend to hang precariously from a rock.
At a little over 90 minutes it’s 10 minutes too long, but while cast and crew do a good job with limited resources, it’s one of those films where the director is aiming for the cinematic bullseye, but keeps hitting low numbers instead.
A good idea though, and it’ll certainly brighten a rain-lashed day.
