“Spies in Disguise,” the big animated release this Christmas, feels like a regifting of previous action adventure favorites, lifting elements from the “Mission: Impossible” series, “Skyfall” and, most of all, “The Incredibles.” It’s fast-moving, entertaining, kinda clever and instantly forgettable.
How could it have been better? By following its own advice. “The world needs weird,” a mother tells her creative, idiosyncratic son.
Or at least some originality.
相反,我们得到一个电影可以预测,seemingly made by committee. But still, fun.
A boy grows up to be Walter Beckett (voice of Tom Holland), who invents useless spy gear for the CIA. How useless, you ask? His inventions don’t cause death and destruction, but are instead designed to fight evil with kindness. Such as a gadget that projects cute cat videos to distract villains who are holding you captive.
Walter is a lover of life, not a fighter, which makes one wonder how he got not just his job, but security clearance.
On the other end of the spectrum is the CIA’s greatest agent, Lance Sterling (Will Smith), who dispatches villains with Bondian finesse, complete with witty double entendres, gadgets, a perfectly tailored tux and an arrogant indifference. His motto: I work alone.
But his latest mission — an incursion into a yakuza outfit straight out of “Kill Bill” — almost failed when, needing to kill all villains and henchmen in his path, he pulled out one of Walter’s gadgets. Lance gets Walter fired.
然而,命运干预。一个特工列表is stolen by the evil Killian (Ben Mendelsohn), throwing the agency into chaos. Lance is framed for the theft and targeted for arrest. On the lam and needing outside help, he turns to the only genius he can — Walter, of course.
Who promptly turns him into a pigeon.
So we have a globetrotting adventure starring a geeky guy barely out of his teens and a pigeon with Will Smith’s voice out to save the world order — not your usual collaborative team, to be sure. The voices of Rachel Brosnahan as Walter’s mother, Rashida Jones and DJ Khaled as agents pursuing our heroes, and Reba McEntire as their CIA boss lend a welcome air of familiarity.
Co-directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, working off an undistinguished script by Brad Copeland and Lloyd Taylor, are making their feature directorial debuts and prove to be efficient storytellers. Bruno is an animator who has worked on the “Ice Age” and “Rio” franchises, while Quane is a storyboard artist whose most recent credit is the affable “Ferdinand.”
So there’s a level of craftsmanship that’s to be admired, even as you tick off every predictable sequence and plot point as it advances steadily to its obvious conclusion.
L“Spies in Disguise”:Animated adventure. Starring the voices of Will Smith, Tom Holland, Rashida Jones, Reba McEntire, DJ Khaled and Rachel Brosnahan. Directed by Nick Bruno and Tony Quane.Theaters and showtimes in 2DTheaters and showtimes in 3D(PG. 101 minutes.)