REVIEW: ‘My Spy The Eternal City’ Can’t Overcome Its Growing Pains

J.J. (Dave Bautista) and Sophie (Chloe Coleman) are back for a brand-new adventure in My Spy the Eternal City. A sequel to the 2020 family action adventure, My Spy, this new tale finds J.J. leaving his field agent days behind and focusing on trying to be a dad to now pre-teen, Sophie. Sophie, on the other hand, wants nothing to do with J.J. Her focus has turned from covert spy training to boys. Attempting to find a way to reconnect with Sophie, J.J. decides to act as a chaperone on Sophie’s choir trip to Italy in hopes this will be the trip to repair their bond. But his plans go out the window when the two are dragged into a terrorist plot. Now they must put their differences aside to stop the plan before it is too late.

Peter Segal returns to direct this new creation, and unfortunately misses the mark. The movie portrays Sophie as an angsty teen who wants nothing to do with her new stepdad, but there is no build up to it. Her behavior towards J.J. comes out of left field and seems like an all too easy scapegoat for the writers. Rather than just focusing on the camaraderie that was created in the first movie, the writers opted to add this unnecessary tension. If done right, this tension could have created a number of comedic moments, especially for Bautista. However, the storyline didn’t serve either character. Instead, it just fell flat.

Another key component left out of this movie was Parisa Fitz-Henley. Fitz-Henley played J.J.’s love interest, and Sophie’s mom in the first movie, and was a major character who helped develop the movie’s two leads. In the sequel, she only makes a cameo. I’m not sure the reason for leaving her out, but the writers could have used her character to help add more meat to J.J. and Sophie’s relationship woes. She could have been the much-needed voice of reason for both characters, but instead she is left out of the picture. The only real positive of this movie was its setting. Set in Italy, the audience gets a glimpse of various parts of the country, giving them quite the visual treat.

Bautista and Coleman do well with the work they are given but aren’t utilized the way they should be. Neither character really brings any laughs to the pic and their action scenes seem a little too farfetched, especially Coleman’s action scenes. Those felt like something out of a Spy Kids movie rather than a My Spy movie. Ken Jeong and Kristen Schaal return as J.J.’s boss, David Kim, and co-worker, Bobbi, and, like Bautisa and Coleman, are underutilized. Newcomers to the My Spy family, Flula Borg and Anna Faris were the two standouts in this movie. Borg, who played the villain, Crane, might have been the funniest character in the movie, while it was nice to see Faris played a different type of character in high school deputy principal, Nancy.

My Spy the Eternal City has major growing pains that unfortunately it never grows out of. The movie has the makings to be a really fun family comedy but isn’t able to make it happen. Thankfully, this movie is being released to Prime Video, so if you insist on watching it you can check it out at your own leisure.

Grade: C-