The Big Picture

Once again, Dave Bautista and Chloe Coleman display sugary-sweetened chemistry while solving an international incident.
The sequel expands its scope, but what’s added doesn’t capitalize on what once worked in
My Spy
.
It’s less consistently humorous and cute, getting off-the-mark silly at points.

Decorated filmmaker Pete Segal is no stranger to comedies or sequels, but My Spy: The Eternal City is far from his best of either. Writers Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber (alongside Segal) uphold the calcified pillars of Hollywood sequels, but their continuation hardly presents like an upgrade. What was once an undercover romantic comedy about a peewee spy in training and her hulking protector is now a generic espionage comedy filled with exhausting stereotypes. The cast welcomes tantalizing additions, the film relocates overseas, and there’s a stronger sense of danger — which would mean something with tighter execution. Yet My Spy: The Eternal City deceptively lacks ambition despite European cityscapes and recognizable celebrity faces, failing to reassure that Prime Video’s My Spy has franchise legs.

My Spy: The Eternal City (2024) My Spy: The Eternal City follows former CIA operative JJ and his tech-savvy partner Sophie as they navigate a new mission in Rome. Tasked with stopping an international arms dealer, they uncover a conspiracy that threatens global security, blending action, humor, and the historic charm of the Eternal City.
 Release Date July 18, 2024 Runtime 111 Minutes Studio(s) Dogbone Entertainment , Good Fear Content , Madison Wells Distributor(s) Amazon Studios , STX Entertainment , Prime Video Expand

What Is ‘My Spy: The Eternal City’ About?

Dave Bautista returns as CIA agent J.J., now an office-holding operative who spends his downtime playing stepdad chef and training 14-year-old Sophie (Chloe Coleman) in tactical combat. Sophie’s grown since My Spy and is now in her sassier American Teen stage. J.J. struggles to connect with Sophie as she starts obsessing over dreamy boys and chasing social popularity. Still, an opportunity presents itself when he registers to chaperone Sophie’s choir trip to Italy. Everything begins as a sitcom situation where J.J. and Sophie play “Spy vs. Spy” over a Roman holiday, but when CIA head honcho David Kim’s (Ken Jeong) son Collin (Taeho K) gets kidnapped while on the same trip, it’s up to J.J. and Sophie to work together on an unexpected rescue mission.

My Spy isn’t impenetrable, but what works is the mutually motivational chemistry between Bautista and Coleman in their mentor-mentee relationship. In My Spy: The Eternal City, lessons turn into a rivalry as Chloe attempts to out-maneuver her babysitting guardian when, for example, sneaking out of their Italian hotel for a late-night gelato score. Their evolution keeps pace with Chloe’s age and drives a fulfilling developmental wedge, but the film isn’t entirely faithful to J.J. and Sophie. Once Collin gets nabbed by a ghost from J.J.’s violent past — funnyman Flula Borg plays stone-faced soldier Bishop Crane — Jeong steps in as J.J.’s partner. It’s a downgrade as J.J. and David buffoon against trained attack finches or other forgettable obstacles, while Sophie is stuck with Kristen Schaal’s returning CIA monitor-watcher Bobbi. Segal struggles to conjure laughs with uninspired jokes about rudimentary spy games throughout J.J. and Sophie’s separations, which the sequel misinterprets as something we crave to see.

My Spy: The Eternal City is a doomed collection of mismatched personalities and miscast roles. Schaal’s bumbling wannabe field agent routine in My Spy worked when latched to Bautista, but her comedic value nosedives alongside Coleman due to overexposure. Jeong has made us cry laughing before, but he’s the wrong brand of jokester sidekick alongside Bautista. Borg could make the King’s Guard crack a smile, so why trot him out as a remarkably jacked killer who only gets one, maybe two instances to make us chuckle? Even Anna Faris, who first appears as Sophie’s vice principal Nancy, feels woefully inappropriate for the arc she’s anointed. These are all performers with larger-than-reality auras who act like they’ve been stabbed by a tranquilizer dart. Whether that was a specific director’s choice or a byproduct of underwritten dialogue is anyone’s guess.

‘My Spy: The Eternal City’ Is a Sequel That Tries Something Different

You wouldn’t guess Segal’s resume includes gut-busters like Tommy Boy or Naked Gun 33+1⁄3: The Final Insult based on My Spy: The Eternal City. Where My Spy relied more on more soulful familial connection that pushed a lone-wolf agent into the arms of a wounded single mother and her adorable someday Kim Possible-esque daughter, its sequel whiffs on nonsense humor like the aforementioned guard birds, or J.J. force-feeding coworkers scones, or Bobbi’s vulgar office language. Segal muddies the original’s softer tone with obnoxious beats better fitting a Happy Madison production, which blends like oil and water. It’s a sequel with an identity crisis and no guidance, where comedians like Craig Robinson are abandoned at proverbial sea, begging to be thrown a lifesaver in the form of witty scripting or punchy action distractions.

Related Dave Bautista Dodges a Knife to the Face in ‘My Spy The Eternal City’ Sneak Peek [Exclusive] The sequel arrives on Prime Video next month.

If there are positives, credit Coleman. My Spy: The Eternal City is salvageable when Sophie confronts coming-of-age beats like hallway romances or self-independence. Anyone around is elevated in these bubbles: Bautista’s interjections from a place of (step)fatherly wisdom, or even Schaal’s kooky auntie vibe. Coleman also deserves credit for her fight choreography, whether Sophie’s training in J.J.’s “dojo” or she’s tasering everyone’s favorite gay mercenary couple Carlos (Devere Rogers) and Todd (Noah Danby) because they’re back too — why not? Segal desperately wants to inject comedy elements from movies like The Longest Yard or Get Smart, but it’s at a detriment to the beating heart of My Spy. He’s not working with Adam Sandler or Chris Farley, and shoehorning sequences that require their comedic dexterity won’t change that reality. If My Spy: The Eternal City realized that, and let preexisting sincerity drive a more Coleman and Bautista-focused junior spy thriller, the film could have avoided so many of the dud jokes that thunk dead on the floor.

I’m not mad, My Spy: The Eternal City — I’m just disappointed. You’ll feel that sinking sensation of underwhelming dullness more than once, thrice, or twenty times while watching this spineless sequel. Maybe it’s when characters are clearly shooting on a digital Volume-like background that tries to recreate the Vatican’s golden-detailed majesty with abysmal pixelation. Perhaps it’ll strike when characters blather relevant story information like a vacuum’s sucked the room dry of excitement. Segal seems unsure of himself as an action-comedy director, relying on what’s worked in the past while not realizing those techniques don’t benefit his current feature. There are no kick-ass yins to funnybone-tickling yangs, which is a real shame and a specific waste of talent across this stacked cast who flounder within the hodgepodge of ideas that never quite bond together.

REVIEW My Spy: The Eternal City (2024) My Spy: The Eternal City is an underwhelming action-comedy sequel that is best as a covert coming-of-age tale, but more frequently suffers as a grab-bag of tonality that abandons what helped My Spy succeed in the first place.ProsBautista and Coleman still match each other well.Who doesn?t love a good Popemobile chase?Italy provides a naturally attractive backdrop. ConsThis sequel doesn’t do action or comedy particularly well.A cast of very funny people do not shine where they should.It feels like a sequel for sequel?s sake, going bigger without an understanding of why.

My Spy: The Eternal City’ is available to stream starting July 18 on Prime Video in the U.S.

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