My Spy: The Eternal City Review

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Review Wire Media for Prime Video. This post also contains Amazon Associates links. Review contains mild spoilers.

This weekend, I watched My Spy: The Eternal City, a family comedy that debuted on Prime Video on the 18th. A follow up to the 2020 film My Spy, this sequel follows CIA operative JJ (Played by Dave Bautista) and his 14-year-old step-daughter Sophie (Chloe Coleman), his protégé and aspiring spy herself. Although Sophie is trying to assert her independence as a teenager and focus on her other passions aside from espionage, she unwittingly ends up in the middle of a global terrorist plot during her school trip to Italy with her choral group. Luckily, JJ tagged along as a chaperone – much to the chagrin of the school vice principal, Nancy (Anna Faris) – so now it’s up to the parent-child spy duo to save the world, with some help from JJ’s CIA colleagues David (Ken Jeong), Bobbi (Kristen Schaal), and Mike (Craig Robinson), along with Sophie’s best friend Collin (Taeho K).

My Spy: The Eternal City is a lighthearted flick that aims to entertain older kids as well as their parents. What I loved most about the film was the strong female characters: The movie opens with a woman skillfully beating up JJ – albeit, it’s a dream sequence – and there are multiple great action scenes where Sophie is depicted training in mixed martial arts and then utilizing those talents to beat up grown men handily. It’s amazing to see a young girl depicted in this way, being a strong, capable action hero in her own right; I think it’s an amazing message for the kids watching. As someone who started training in martial arts as a teen because I grew up loving Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I would have LOVED this as a kid! This was something that was simply not depicted in the 1990s.

I appreciated the modern ethos of the film in general – at one point in the film, JJ says “We don’t talk about periods because they’re private and embarrassing” and a woman shuts that down right away. It’s a comedy film, so not everything in this would win the “Outstanding achievement in feminism” award, but it was refreshing to see the progress in society reflected back in what the younger generation will be watching. In fact, some of it was so modern, it made me feel a little old – I found myself thinking, “Wow, is this really a kid’s movie?” due to the edgy language and humor. It doesn’t bother me at all, it’s just different from the movies that were aimed at younger audiences when I was a kid. It’s rated PG-13 with suggestive humor and cursing, so I feel I should mention that for the parents reading so they can make an informed decision when gauging if their children are in the right age range for this flick. In addition to the jokes aimed at parents with a wink and a nod, the film also mixes a lot of action with some very slapstick comedy – the most ridiculous part of the film was when a flock of robotic birds swarm JJ and David and attack by pecking them on the crotch! In another scene, JJ has his John Wick moment of revenge when he finds out that the villain killed his fish, Blueberry. It’s meant to be silly, fun, and over-the-top entertainment.

Although some aspects of this film felt very different to the family films of the ’90s, this movie still hits all the familiar tropes and beats of these type of comedies; and I had the same reaction to the characters that I have almost every time I’ve watched a teen-centered movie, ever since I was a teen myself, where I find both the teens AND the parents to be kind of jerks at the outset, with an eventual redemption arc where everyone comes together. One cliché that I really appreciated them turning on its head was Sophie going out with her nice, nerdy best friend in the end rather than the popular jock she had a crush on. As much as I love movies like Pretty in Pink, I always hated that the protagonists used to end up with the vapid popular boy rather than their kind male friends – that ridiculous “Nice guys finish last” premise. So this was another part of the film that felt updated to the times, and sets a better example in my opinion.

If you have older kids and want to watch a fun, silly movie together that features a strong female lead, then check out My Spy: The Eternal City on Prime Video this weekend! You can watch the trailer below:

My Spy: The Eternal City Official Trailer

My Spy: The Eternal City is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video – click here to add it to your watchlist now!