My Spy (2008)
"My Mom's New Boyfriend" (original title)

Henry Durand is a young federal agent who is given a difficult assignment: spy on his mother and her boyfriend who is suspected of leading a gang of art thieves.

Director:

George Gallo

Writer:

George Gallo

Stars:

Antonio Banderas, Meg Ryan, Colin Hanks

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Antonio Banderas	...	Tommy Lucero / Martinez
Meg Ryan	...	Martha Durand
Colin Hanks	...	Henry Durand
Selma Blair	...	Emily Lott
Trevor Morgan	...	Eddie
John Valdetero	...	Agent Fedler (as John Valdeterro)
Eli Danker	...	Jean Yves Tatao
Tom Adams	...	Niko Evangelatos
Keith David	...	FBI Chief Conrad
Enrico Colantoni	...	Enrico the Chef
Marco St. John	...	Inspector Laborde
Aki Avni	...	Agent Randle
Mark Meade	...	Special Agent Wagner
Tarri Markel	...	Agent Cisneros (as Tarri Markell)
Jeff Fried	...	Agent Simpson

Storyline

Henry is a young FBI agent. During a three-year absence from his home in Shreveport, his mother Marty loses more than 100 pounds, looks great, and to Henry's embarrassment, has become a party animal. Within a day of Henry's returning home with his fiancée, Emily, who's an FBI profiler, Marty meets Tommy, a suave foreigner. He's posing as a consultant, but he's an international art thief, in town to steal "Mother and Son," a Bernini sculpture. Henry is detailed to head a team keeping his mom's new boyfriend under surveillance. Love, law enforcement, and filial devotion are set to collide.

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Plot Keywords:

fbi | love | sculpture | surveillance | profiler | 

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Taglines:

His mum is dating his suspect. Let the surveillance begin.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language, some violence and drug material

Details

Country:

Germany USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 April 2008 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Homeland Security

Filming Locations:

Norton Art Gallery - 4747 Creswell Avenue, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Millennium Films, Eclectic Pictures, Equity Pictures Medienfonds GmbH & Co. KG

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Meg Ryan plays the mother to Colin Hanks' character. Colin is the real life son of Tom Hanks, who co-starred with Meg Ryan in 3 movies.

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Goofs

When Henry pours his second cup of scotch, he takes the top off the bottle twice.

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Quotes

Martha Durand: Anyway, it just took me a long time to realize that there was something missing inside.
Henry Durand: Missing from inside the house?
Martha Durand: No, Henry, missing inside here, spiritually.
Henry Durand: Oh.
Martha Durand: So started my quest for enlightenment, inner peace, inner joy, the person who'd gotten buried alive in a sea of nicotine and packaged cakes.

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Crazy Credits

A montage of crew candids, behind-the-scenes footage, and outtakes accompanies the closing credits.

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Soundtracks

"Seedless"
Written by Rick Foster (BMI)
Performed by The Wrath of Grapes
Published by Nice Guise West Music (BMI)

User Reviews

Decent rom-com, if a little forced ...

Saw this film last night by chance. Past the time quite nicely, but what with it being something of a comeback for Meg Ryan I guess people will be expecting quite a lot ...

Well, Ryan is good, but she's still just Meg Ryan. She has never been a big favourite of mine (especially since the interview with Parkinson that she did in the UK!) she seems to just be on screen. From Sleepless In Seattle, to You've Got Mail, to When A Man Loves A Woman, she nevers gets into a role as much as I'd like. People talk of her being one of the leading ladies of romantic comedy, but when compared to the likes of Cameron Diaz, Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts and even Catherine Zeta Jones, I always question her 'greatness'. Just look at the physical comedy: it always seems forced and at the very least placed and safe, she's just not as free to do anything and to look really silly, say like Bullock or Diaz often do in this genre.

Banderas is his usual sexy and funny self, he is great in rom coms, tongue wedged firmly in cheek, bringing all the fun and frolics he gets up to voicing Puss In Boots in the Shrek films to his physical self here ... great fun.

Colin Hanks is good as the worrying son of Ryan. It's kinda a little weird seeing him in this role, after Ryan's famous partnering on screen with his father Tom Hanks, but he pulls it off well, and you get a sense of his predicament ... but never anything more really ... writing problem, more than acting performance.

Selma Blair is under-used in what could have been a fantastic role for her. One minute she's a little crazy,loving Hanks' eccentric mother, and wanted a bit of nookie whilst everyone is out of the house ... the next she's trying to convince as a (somewhat) serious FBI agent, jumping into the car to catch some criminals. She says "I'm coming with you" because "this is family". So is she gonna try and get Banderas off the hook? Or protect Ryan's character? It just feels messy ...

I don't know, there are things to like here, and things that just felt like they were following a format ... I don't need rules to be changed up all the time in every genre, but when you have a good premise and actors totally able to pull of some great pysical comedy, then switch to romance (Banderas, Hanks & Blair I'm talking about) it's just a shame not to utilize that.

A 6/10 from me. Fun to pass the time, but nowhere near the rom com heights of While You Were Sleeping, Notting Hill, The Holiday, Pretty Woman or My Best Friends Wedding for example. Meg needs to try harder ... to be nice and for a hit!