Paul Feig’s “Spy” hits theaters this weekend and in honor of the comedy starring Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jude Law, and Jason Statham, we’ve put together some spy comedy favorites that will hold you over until you can catch the latest in the genre.
True Lies (1994)
To those closest to him, Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger), is a husband, father, and computer salesman. To those who really know him, he is a spy for the United States. While on the trail of some stolen nuclear weapons that have found their way into the hands of terrorists, Harry begins to suspect his wife, Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), is having an affair with a used car salesman. In the true art of balancing it all, Harry must find a way to simultaneously take down the terrorists and save his marriage.
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Mike Meyers plays Austin Powers, a British spy from the 60’s, who volunteers to be cryogenically frozen after his nemesis, Dr. Evil (also played by Mike Meyers) escapes and is also cryogenically frozen. When Powers is woken up in the 90’s he is teamed up with Vanessa Kensington (played by Elizabeth Hurley), in order to find Dr. Evil and stop his plan of world domination.
Get Smart (2008)
Based on the 1965 television series of the same name, “Get Smart” stars Steve Carell as the intelligent, but inept, Maxwell Smart, and Anne Hathway as the straight-laced and beautiful, Agent 99. The movie revolves around the pair’s attempts to thwart the terrorist organization KAOS. Though Maxwell’s blunders makes it seem as their task will inevitably fail, they manage to pull it all off in the end.
Despicable Me 2 (2013)
With the voice talents of Steve Carell as Gru and Kristen Wiig as Lucy, “Despicable Me 2” brings Gru into the world of the Anti-Villain League when they recruit him to assist in an investigation. Gru is paired with AVL agent, Lucy, and together they track down Gru’s number one suspect El Macho (voiced by Benjamin Bratt) and find a little love along the way as well.
Spies Like Us (1985)
Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd star as Emmett Fitz-Hume and Austin Millbarge, two Pentagon workers whom meet while taking the Foreign Service exam, which they ultaimately do poorly on. The Defense Intelligence Agency takes them in and makes them agents to send out to the field as decoys to distract from what the team of real agents is doing, of course the part about being decoys is kept quiet from Emmett and Austin. All but one agent from the real team is destroyed, but the bumbling team of Millbarge and Fitz-Hume survive. They team up with the surviving member of the real team, Karen Boyer (Donna Dixon), and continue the mission.
Johnny English (2003)
Rowan Atkinson stars in the parody of the James Bond films in which MI5 is attacked and his character, Johnny English, is left as the only remaining British spy. English is incompetent as a spy, but he and his sidekick, Angus Bough (Ben Miller) take on the case that Agent One was working on prior to his death – a plot to steal the Crown Jewels. Mishap after mishap ensues, and English and Bough eventually work with Interpol agent, Lorna Campbell (Natalie Imbruglia), to save the Crown Jewels from resting on the head of a criminal.