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The Spy Who Dumped Me

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Wikipedia article




'The Spy Who Dumped Me' is a 2018 American action comedy film directed by Susanna Fogel and co-written by Fogel and David Iserson. The film stars Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, Sam Heughan, Hasan Minhaj, and Gillian Anderson and follows two best friends who are chased by assassins through Europe after one of their ex-boyfriends turns out to be a CIA agent. The film was released in the United States on August 3, 2018, by Lionsgate and grossed more than $75 million, while receiving mixed reviews from critics, who criticized the film's genre and tone but praised the performances of Kunis and McKinnon.

Plot





In Los Angeles, Audrey Stockman spends her birthday party upset after being unexpectedly dumped by her boyfriend Drew via text. Her best friend and roommate, Morgan, convinces her to burn Drew's belongings and informs him also via text message. Unbeknownst to Audrey, Drew is a government agent, currently in Vilnius being pursued by armed men. He calls Audrey, promising to return for his things, including a fantasy football trophy.

At work, Audrey flirts with a customer who unexpectedly forces her into a van. Identifying himself as Sebastian Henshaw, he and his colleague Duffer reveal that Drew works for the CIA. Returning home, he arrives, and a sniper opens fire on the apartment. Telling Audrey to give the trophy to his contact at a caf in Vienna, Drew is shot by a man Morgan brought home from Audreys party, whom she then pushes off the balcony. The friends escape as agents raid the apartment. Morgan convinces Audrey to deliver the trophy, and they fly to Vienna with a suitcase of decoy trophies.

At the caf, Sebastian appears and demands the trophy at gunpoint. Audrey seemingly complies, escaping with Morgan when a shootout erupts, and outmaneuvers armed motorcyclists after their rideshare driver is killed. She reveals she still has Drew's trophy; on a video call with his MI6 superior Wendy, Sebastian realizes Audrey gave him a decoy. Russian assassin Nadedja is sent after the friends, who steal passports from another pair of travelers and board a train to Prague. The women discover that the football trophy contains a USB flash drive.

Morgan calls her parents, who tell her to stay with Roger, a family friend in Prague. At his apartment, Audrey discovers "Roger" is a spy who killed the real Roger, and he and Nadedja drug her and Morgan. They awaken in an abandoned gymnastics training facility, confronted by a couple who had masqueraded as Drew's parents. They reveal that Drew was negotiating to sell them the flash drive, with Audrey as his unwitting cover. She tells them that she flushed the drive down Rogers toilet, and she and Morgan are left to be tortured by Nadedja, but Sebastian defies orders, arriving in time to save them.

They are brought to Wendy in Paris, explaining that the drive was flushed, and are given tickets back to the United States, while Sebastian is placed on leave. As he drives them to the airport, Audrey confesses that she hid the drive in her vagina. Morgan calls Edward Snowden who had a childhood crush on her and he helps them decrypt the drive, which contains a universal backdoor; the couple seeking it are the heads of the Highland crime syndicate.

The trio travel to a hostel in Amsterdam, where they are attacked by Duffer, who wants to sell the drive himself. He is killed by their hostel roommate, who assumes they were being robbed. Audrey responds to a text sent to Duffer's phone, agreeing to sell the drive at a private party in Berlin. She and Sebastian infiltrate the party disguised as the Canadian ambassador and his wife, and Morgan poses as a member of an acrobatic troupe. Sebastian is attacked, while Morgan climbs a trapeze and is confronted by Nadedja, but fatally impales her on an anchor.

Audrey meets the buyer, who is revealed to be Drew, still alive. He claims that Sebastian is working for Highland, as he arrives, held hostage by Drew's "parents". Drew kills them, and he and Sebastian accuse each other of betraying Audrey. Drew shoots Sebastian, and she pretends to be glad before grabbing Drew's gun. He attacks her, but is subdued by Morgan with a cannonball, and is arrested.

Sebastian survives, and Morgan uses his phone to call her parents, receiving a call from Wendy lifting his suspension. Morgan begs her for a job as a spy, while Audrey and Sebastian share a kiss. A year later, Morgan and Audrey celebrate Audrey's birthday in Tokyo; they are revealed to be on assignment with Sebastian, now all working as international spies.

Cast



Production



Principal photography began in Budapest, Hungary, in July 2017. Filming also took place in Amsterdam that September, wrapping the same month.

Release



'The Spy Who Dumped Me' premiered at Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles on July 25, 2018. The film was originally scheduled to be released on July 6, 2018, but after "a phenomenal test screening" it was pushed back a month to August 3, 2018, in order to avoid a crowded July frame.

Home media

'The Spy Who Dumped Me' was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 30, 2018 by Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

Reception



Box office

'The Spy Who Dumped Me' grossed $33.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $41.7 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $75.3 million, against a production budget of $40 million.

In the United States and Canada, 'The Spy Who Dumped Me' was released alongside 'Christopher Robin', 'The Darkest Minds' and 'Death of a Nation: Can We Save America a Second Time?', and was projected to gross $1015 million from 3,111 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $5 million on its first day, including $950,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $12.4 million, finishing third at the box office, behind holdover 'Mission: Impossible Fallout' and 'Christopher Robin'. It fell 45% to $6.6 million in its second weekend, finishing sixth.

Critical response

On the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "'The Spy Who Dumped Me' isn't the funniest or most inventive spy comedy, but Kate McKinnon remains as compulsively watchable as ever." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it 3 out of 5 stars.

'Variety's Owen Gleiberman praised McKinnon's performance but criticized the film for favoring violence over comedy, writing, "'The Spy Who Dumped Me' is no debacle, but it's an over-the-top and weirdly combustible entertainment, a movie that can't seem to decide whether it wants to be a light comedy caper or a top-heavy exercise in B-movie mega-violence." Barbara VanDenburgh of 'The Arizona Republic' called the film "a tonally incongruous, plodding and graphically violent comedy" and gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, noting: "Perhaps the problem isn't one of too little ambition, but of too much. 'The Spy Who Dumped Me' is, after all, trying earnestly to be about half a dozen different things: a buddy comedy, a spy drama, a raunch fest, a thrilling action film. It's just that it doesn't have the focus to do any of those things particularly well". 'Rolling Stone's Peter Travers criticized the film, similarly rating it 2 out of 5 stars. He stated that the film "spends way too much time on car chases, shootouts, knife fights and R-rated violence that doesn't square with the film's comic agenda" and also commented that "'The Spy Who Dumped Me' isn't just painfully unfunnyit criminally wastes the comic talents of Kate McKinnon".

Richard Brody of 'The New Yorker' praised the film, stating, "Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon riff gleefully in the ample and precise framework of Susanna Fogel's effervescent action comedy", while Justin Chang of the 'Los Angeles Times' also gave it a positive review, writing, "'The Spy Who Dumped Me' [is] a fast, funny Europe-trotting buddy caper". Johnny Oleksinski of the 'New York Post' opined it was nice to see McKinnon used properly in a film, and that Kunis was the ideal straight woman, calling the two a smart match.

Accolades



References




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