My Spy the Eternal City: The Unexpected Roman Holiday
J.J. is a CIA agent with the muscular and sculpted physique of former wrestler Dave Bautista but a life more akin to that of an ordinary office worker: a rebellious teenage stepdaughter with whom he tries to bond by baking muffins and spending time together, often with disastrous results. J.J. has decided to give up secret missions to dedicate himself to his family. When Sophie’s (Chloe Coleman) high school choir wins a trip to Italy to sing for the Pope, he volunteers to chaperone the rowdy group of teenagers. But, thousands of miles from Langley, he inadvertently gets caught up in a plot to eliminate the world’s powerful figures gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
The plot is rather implausible, but the new adventure comedy My Spy the Eternal City holds up well. Directed by Peter Segal and now available on Prime Video, it is the sequel to the successful 2020 film, My Spy. “My Spy debuted in theaters on March 14, 2020: it arrived in theaters on Saturday and was withdrawn on Sunday because the lockdown began in Los Angeles. Quite a stroke of luck,” laughs veteran comedy director Segal (The Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, Get Smart, Anger Management, 50 First Dates). “Luckily, Amazon put us on its streaming platform, and we became the third most-watched film of 2020. Families need to experience things together with their teenage children. That’s why we continued with the story,” the director remarks at the Culver Theatre premiere in Los Angeles.
The domesticated spy, who has taken down international criminals but struggles to handle a group of teenagers on a school trip, provides rather enjoyable comedic moments. The rest of the cast does the same, with the CIA office chief who pretends to be a pediatric nurse to keep his real profession secret (comedian Ken Jeong); the hacker-agent (comedian Kristen Schaal) who gives first kiss lessons and tries to guess the Vatican’s Wi-Fi password; the strict teacher who undergoes an unexpected transformation midway through the film (Anna Faris). The young star Coleman, who handles various action scenes, has already made her mark in major Hollywood productions at just 15 years old, such as Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Avatar: The Way of Water for cinema, and the HBO series Big Little Lies, with Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman, and Meryl Streep, for TV.
“Filming in Italy was intense and beautiful. We had to fit everything into two weeks: the exteriors in Venice, Rome, and Florence,” explains the director. “We didn’t have enough money to spend more days filming in Italy. The Tuscan countryside, interiors, and many chase scenes were filmed in South Africa; we didn’t have enough time in your country. The Vatican, with the interiors of St. Peter’s and the square, are the result of special effects. Obviously, we didn’t have permits to shoot there, and it would have been incredibly expensive!” says Segal, revealing a little trick used to make everything look well-connected and believable: “Our Italian executive producer, Riccardo Neri, recommended: the important thing is not to frame the pavement. An Italian immediately recognizes the difference between the large stones of Florence and the cobblestones of Rome. But we had the most incredible crew, and everything worked out.”
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J.J. is a CIA agent with the muscular and sculpted physique of former wrestler Dave Bautista but a life more akin to that of an ordinary office worker: a rebellious teenage stepdaughter with whom he tries to bond by baking muffins and spending time together, often with disastrous results. J.J. has decided to give up secret missions to dedicate himself to his family. When Sophie’s (Chloe Coleman) high school choir wins a trip to Italy to sing for the Pope, he volunteers to chaperone the rowdy group of teenagers. But, thousands of miles from Langley, he inadvertently gets caught up in a plot to eliminate the world’s powerful figures gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
The plot is rather implausible, but the new adventure comedy My Spy the Eternal City holds up well. Directed by Peter Segal and now available on Prime Video, it is the sequel to the successful 2020 film, My Spy. “My Spy debuted in theaters on March 14, 2020: it arrived in theaters on Saturday and was withdrawn on Sunday because the lockdown began in Los Angeles. Quite a stroke of luck,” laughs veteran comedy director Segal (The Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, Get Smart, Anger Management, 50 First Dates). “Luckily, Amazon put us on its streaming platform, and we became the third most-watched film of 2020. Families need to experience things together with their teenage children. That’s why we continued with the story,” the director remarks at the Culver Theatre premiere in Los Angeles.
The domesticated spy, who has taken down international criminals but struggles to handle a group of teenagers on a school trip, provides rather enjoyable comedic moments. The rest of the cast does the same, with the CIA office chief who pretends to be a pediatric nurse to keep his real profession secret (comedian Ken Jeong); the hacker-agent (comedian Kristen Schaal) who gives first kiss lessons and tries to guess the Vatican’s Wi-Fi password; the strict teacher who undergoes an unexpected transformation midway through the film (Anna Faris). The young star Coleman, who handles various action scenes, has already made her mark in major Hollywood productions at just 15 years old, such as Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Avatar: The Way of Water for cinema, and the HBO series Big Little Lies, with Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman, and Meryl Streep, for TV.
“Filming in Italy was intense and beautiful. We had to fit everything into two weeks: the exteriors in Venice, Rome, and Florence,” explains the director. “We didn’t have enough money to spend more days filming in Italy. The Tuscan countryside, interiors, and many chase scenes were filmed in South Africa; we didn’t have enough time in your country. The Vatican, with the interiors of St. Peter’s and the square, are the result of special effects. Obviously, we didn’t have permits to shoot there, and it would have been incredibly expensive!” says Segal, revealing a little trick used to make everything look well-connected and believable: “Our Italian executive producer, Riccardo Neri, recommended: the important thing is not to frame the pavement. An Italian immediately recognizes the difference between the large stones of Florence and the cobblestones of Rome. But we had the most incredible crew, and everything worked out.”
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