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 first talks with Enrico on the front lawn, the police car's position changes from being alongside Enrico's to being behind it.

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Quotes

Tommy Lucero: I'll be out of any jail you put me in by 3 o'clock Friday.
Inspector Laborde: And why is that?
Tommy Lucero: Oh, because I have to see someone at 4 o'clock on Friday.

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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

"We're Uninvited"
Written by Michael Petrolawicz, Rocco Malozzi, and Conrad Sanguineti
Performed by Uninvited Guests
Published by Not For Nothin' (ASCAP)
Produced by Wicz from Uninvited Guests & Conrad Sanguineti from The More Escapes
Courtesy of Anthem Records, LLC

User Reviews

Scraping the bottom of the barrel...

I'm usually pretty forgiving when it comes to romantic comedies, especially those out of Hollywood. They often are borderline insipid, clichéd, predictable, and dull-witted, but those that aren't completely inept still manage to entertain to varying degrees. Unfortunately, "My Mom's New Boyfriend" falls way below the grade and fails even at being mildly amusing.

First, it isn't necessary for a movie like this to be smart or particularly realistic, but it should have some integrity so that we can actually believe in the characters. Here, in the prologue, we see Henry Durand (Colin Hanks), who clearly has a close relationship with his Mom, Marty (Meg Ryan), leaving home and Mom behind to start a job with the FBI. Flash forward three years, and Henry returns home -- apparently, without even once having visited or talked to his Mom in all that time. Now I'm sure the FBI requires a certain amount of secrecy, but it sure doesn't require its agents to cut off all communication with their nearest and dearest for three years. Right off the bat, the phoniness of the set-up sinks any chance at viewer empathy with any of the characters.

Second, the characters themselves are about the most unlikeable I can think of in any romantic comedy I've ever seen. I'd rather spend a weekend locked in a cell with Barbara Stone (Bette Midler's character in "Ruthless People") than 15 minutes with the insufferably egotistical, vapid Marty Durand. Ryan is just awful here, and I usually enjoy her performances. She badly overplays Marty's zany qualities with ticks and vocal histrionics that are way over-the-top, and she seems to have lost whatever limited gifts she had for physical comedy. Maybe the knife slipped and the surgeons cut something else out when they were redesigning her face. She looks like she's trying to look like Michelle Pfeiffer and failing miserably. It has to be the worst performance of her career, and probably the worst of the year. Hanks, perhaps trying to counterweight Ryan's annoying performance, is as lifeless as a paperweight. He glowers and scowls through the film. Neither Antonio Banderas nor Selma Blair have enough to do to make much of an impression, though Banderas manages at least to be somewhat charming through the muddle of the storyline. Actually, the only genuinely funny performance in the film is from Trevor Morgan, in a small part as a young stud Ryan dates.

The film piles bad jokes one on top of the other and beats to death what wasn't particularly funny the first time -- the Italian chef who pines for Marty, the FBI agents' jokes about how hot Marty supposedly is, etc. I guess it does this because it has nothing else to do. There's just nothing going on here, no romance, almost no comedy, certainly no suspense, and we lost logic in the first five minutes. The only thing that can recommend this movie is seeing the crack-up of a once gifted actress. There's a certain fascination in that, Ryan's performance is a slow-moving train wreck. I hope she gets it together and comes back in better form next time.