‘My Spy the Eternal City’: Dave Bautista and Chloe Coleman Go up Against Anna Faris in Entertaining Sequel

Sandra Miska

It has been four years since the release of “My Spy,” the playful family-friendly action comedy from “Tommy Boy” director Pete Segal. The world has changed a lot since then. “My Spy” was the big screen debut of Chloe Coleman, whose career has blossomed since, and leading man Dave Bautista has also expanded his cinematic resume. So, Segal knew he had to deliver something bigger, which led him to make “My Spy the Eternal City,” a more action-packed sequel set in Italy, with a showdown in the basement of the Vatican, of all places.

Five years after the events of “My Spy,” Bautista’s CIA agent JJ is now married to nurse Kate (Lara Babalola), making him Sophie’s (Coleman) stepfather. As a family man, he is happily confined to a CIA desk at work. At home, he makes delightful baked goods, while also grooming 14-year-old Sophie to one day become a CIA agent herself, not only by training her physically, but also by giving her gadgets for protection, including a cell phone that doubles as a stun gun. But Sophie is at the age where boys and other interests are taking up more of her time, and the line between JJ training her and just being overprotective is becoming increasingly blurry. When the opportunity arises to chaperone Sophie and her classmates on a choir trip to Italy, he volunteers in the hopes that it will bring the pair closer.

“My Spy the Eternal City” also sees the return of Kristen Schaal as JJ’s CIA colleague Bobbie, and Ken Jeong as their boss, David. Both are a delight in their expanded roles, and there is even a bit of romance in the mix. But once the school group gets to Rome, the plot takes a turn when Collin (Taeho K), David’s son and Sophie’s bestie, is kidnapped by evildoers at the global summit where their school choir is set to perform.

In expanding the world of the first movie, “My Spy the Eternal City” adds into the mix Nancy Buck (played by Anna Faris), a tightly-wound school principal who strives to keep JJ in line, as if he were a new recruit under her command. Faris essentially plays two characters, as Nancy has a whole other side to her. “She likes order. She likes discipline and she has her own sense of justice. I love that,” Faris told us about Nancy. “I do think it is a role that could have gone male, could have gone like a whole different age range. [I also got] to play dimension and duplicity, which isn’t always what I’m known for.”

Playing a type A, calculated character is a change of pace for Faris, whom we are used to seeing play lovable goofballs, such as Cindy Campbell in “Scary Movie” and Shelly in “The House Bunny.” But, for her, filming “My Spy: The Eternal City” was a fun experience. “Ken, Kristen, Chloe, Dave were immediately embracing of me, and to everybody. We laughed and laughed.

Taking “My Spy” to Italy was inspired by Segal’s own experience of chaperoning his son’s school trip to Europe. In “My Spy the Eternal City,” Sophie is now a teenager, and as JJ, Sophie and team fight to stop a nuclear plot, Segal, and co-writers Jon and Erich Hoeber, want “My Spy” to grow up with her. While the original was a charming kid’s spy tale meets rom-com, “My Spy the Eternal City” delivers more edge and more espionage. Its added violence and naughty adolescence antics make it more suitable for the teens that were tweens when the original was released.

“Chloe isn’t nine years old anymore,” said Segal. “In the first film, she was a latchkey kid, and JJ was her bodyguard, so to speak, even though he was spying on the family originally. But he became a father figure… She’s growing up and wants her independence and has growing pains.”

Part of these growing pains are teenage hormones. In the midst of all the action and shenanigans, there is a love triangle thrown in between Sophie, Collin, and golden boy Ryan (Billy Barratt), a jock who joined choir to score chicks. Collin has a crush on Sophie, but in the beginning she only has eyes for Ryan. Collin would probably be a better boyfriend in the long run, but we are made to feel like Sophie is misguided for being attracted to Ryan, when she should be allowed to like whom she likes. She is only 14, after all.

The extra supporting characters and side stories detract from the main plot and what should be the central relationship. One of the elements that made the first “My Spy” fun was the back and forth between JJ and Sophie, with a young Coleman punching above her weight against Bautista. There is not enough of that witty banter between the pair in this sequel. If a third “My Spy” movie is made, let’s hope we get more of the “buddy” dynamic between its two leads.

“My Spy the Eternal City” begins streaming July 18 on Prime Video.