I-Spy

While Eddie Murphy doesn't seem to have aged a day in the 20 years since 48 Hrs. made him a star, his showboating wisecracker stock persona sure is getting old. Unfurling that same mustachioed smirk he's worn in all his worst movies, Murphy strikes out again in this ill-conceived, utterly vacuous, assembly-line, buddy action-comedy slapped together from paltry cloak-and-dagger scraps, off-the-shelf gimmicks, and 30-year-old special effects. Murphy plays a rich, egotistical professional boxer who is paired with a hapless secret agent (Owen Wilson, The Royal Tenenbaums) under the flimsiest of "wouldn't it be funny if" pretenses. The entire concept behind the film seems to consist of dropping these two into shopworn set pieces (a car chase, a shootout) and letting them ad-lib, ad nauseam. A meager, pathetically contrived Bond-spawn plot (retrieve a stolen prototype stealth fighter from a Nehru-jacketed multimillionaire bad guy) takes a backseat in this poorly scripted, character-lacking bomb from director Betty Thomas (Dr. Dolittle), which does no justice to the original Robert Culp/Bill Cosby TV series. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include both widescreen and full screen versions, audio commentary (by director Betty Thomas, editor Peter Teschner, producer Jenno Topping, and writers David Ronn and Jay Scherick), four featurettes (all running near four minutes)--“Cloak & Camouflage” on costume design, “Gadgets & Gizmos” on props, “Schematics & Blueprints” on production design, and “The Slugafest” on the boxing scene--and trailers. Bottom line: A decent little extras package for one of 2002's biggest stinkers.] (R. Blackwelder)