Director Paul Feig and star Melissa McCarthy are trying to corner the market on bawdy female humor movies.  They’ve already made Bridesmaids and The Heat, and now they’re back with Spy, which is a semi-comic, potty-mouthed, fairly bloody spoof of James Bond films.  Spoofs often take their premises too seriously, especially as the story is wrapping up, and that occurs here as well, but the film manages to work in some laughs as McCarthy does her best to save the world from nuclear terror.

The premise is pretty solid: villainess Rose Byrne knows all the CIA agents, so deputy director Allison Janney agrees to send in analyst McCarthy.  Improvising, she gets close to Byrne, trying to track the missing nuke, with a little help from fellow analyst Miranda Hart.  Complicating matters are the male agents, played by Jason Statham, Jude Law and Peter Serafinowicz.

Spy successfully spoofs the James Bond oeuvre, from a nice imitation of the opening credit titles to goofy chases and fancy fight work.  It highlights the sexism that is a hallmark of the genre, arguing that beauty and glamour are not the only qualities of successful agents.  McCarthy, who is not one of my favorite performers, is quite good as the wallflower who blooms when put in the field on live operations.  Too much of the humor involves humiliation, or profanity, or scatology, but when the film aims at real targets, it’s not bad.

I’m not a big fan of Feig’s work, but this is his best to date.  Statham shows a knack for humor that his action films don’t promote, and it’s hard to root against these women.  Rose Byrne overacts outrageously, but she looks great.  The film is much too crude for its own good, but there are clever Bond-ish references and some real laughs along the way.  I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  10 June 2015.