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Review of Spy (Theodore Shapiro)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... for its entertaining play on the vintage James Bond title song and select individual moments in its competent but not particularly memorable Theodore Shapiro score.

Avoid it... if you expect Shapiro to really let rip with a full-fledged Bond parody score, his romance and action sequences rather tepid and favoring a more generic thriller genre ambience.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Spy: (Theodore Shapiro) Those seeking to dispel society's prejudices against body image stereotypes were horrified by 2015's super-agent parody Spy, a film with a bloated premise built upon a meaty foundation with the wide girth of its jokes about a woman's immense physical size. Joining the usual bad-ass agents in the appealing forms of Jason Statham and Jude Law is a CIA desk operative with the bulbous shape and brash attitude of comedian Melissa McCarthy, the three of them thrown into a full-fledged James Bond script that requires McCarthy's fat luck to save New York City from a nuclear suitcase bomb in transit through Europe. Kudos must be given to Statham for his appearance in this flick, his straight-laced continuation of his other screen personas the perfect foil for McCarthy's blathering idiocy and inertial clumsiness in the active field of professional assassinations and organized crime. Despite relying heavily on McCarthy's size for many of its jokes, Spy sat on the competition and garnered the admiration of a majority of critics, consuming nearly a quarter billion dollars at the box office and becoming one of the summer's qualified hits. Parodies of the Bond franchise have yielded some entertaining scores through the years, shameless imitations of John Barry and David Arnold's styles for the franchise (one has to wonder if Thomas Newman's scores for Bond could ever be parodied given how comparatively anonymous they are) abounding through high orchestral jazz and electronic loops of sophistication for otherwise foolish leads. Actor-turned director Paul Fieg, after utilizing the services of composer Mike Andrews for his prior high-profile projects, was afforded parody score master Theodore Shapiro for Spy. Shapiro's work in the field is extensive and highlighted by Tropic Thunder and Blades of Glory, his ear adept at pinning genre sounds with an effective balance of serious tone (as required for any parody) and a hint of outward tongue-in-cheek humor. His contribution to Spy takes the more serious route, as per instructions from Fieg, who saw his project as a spy thriller first and comedy spoof second. Complicating matters is the fact that the director wanted the music already prepared before final editing of the product as to avoid a temp track, a choice which meant that Shapiro was simply writing Bond-like score material blind. The resulting music is competent but not particularly overwhelming, too much of its running time a generic plug-and-play experience due, possibly, to that production process.

The formula for the score's constructs is extremely familiar to the music in any given Bond film, without the memorable romantic secondary identity that goes underdeveloped in Spy due to the comedic tilt. You encounter an opening action sequence that introduces the score's main theme, the obligatory sultry pop song, the overwrought secondary theme of grandeur for the villain of the tale, and the usual electronic loops of contemporary appeal for the technological elements. The highlight of the bunch, ironically, is the song, which Shapiro co-penned with Craig Wedren and features the score's main theme with bravado at its outset and in counterpoint later on. The lyrics aren't quite funny enough to merit the Shirley Bassey-like imitation vocals by Ivy Levan, but the result is still very strong given your expectations for a context like this one. A short preview of the song is provided early in the presentation and the fuller version concludes the narrative. As for the actual score, Shapiro competently navigates through extensive development of his two main themes for Spy, but neither is really opened up full throttle to such an extent as to make his work truly memorable. The main theme consists of four two-note phrases that are nicely malleable in that they can exist in any duration (Shapiro often only presents one of the phrases before waiting a few measures to move on to the second phrase, and so on), and you hear this idea immediately from faint strings in "Agent Bradley Fine." Fuller ensemble renditions of this theme are present in both "Bulgarian Breakout" and especially "Vespa Chase," and it seems to serve the movie as a whole rather than one character. The longer-lined theme for the baddies in the story is more typical to the Bond franchise's style and makes its first substantial impact in "To Rome" before adopting a greater presence that eventually dominates "Garage Fight/Helicopter/Death of De Luca." What little romanticism that survives in the score typically reveals itself in the location-related cues, as in "City of Varying Lights," "To Rome," and most notably "Casino di Roma." Look for Shapiro's nod to John Barry's woodwind solos in these portions. The remainder of score, although appropriately bombastic during the chase sequences, is surprising anonymous, the ambient suspense and chase material in the latter half especially lacking in memorable substance. A cue such as "Shut Down the Grid" is largely useless outside of the film, for instance. Shapiro also underplays the romantic stance in "Agent Susan Cooper" at the end, his piano and harp interludes simply not impactful enough for the full comedic punch of the closing scene. In the end, expect the song, "Who Can You Trust?," to completely steal the show after the score's less appealing portions are exposed on album.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 60:58

• 1. Agent Bradley Fine (2:36) • 2. Bulgarian Breakout (4:17) • 3. Who Can You Trust (Opening Main Title Theme)* (1:42) • 4. He Was Bradley Fine (3:46) • 5. City of Varying Lights (1:41) • 6. Murdery Hotel (1:09) • 7. Following Rick Ford (1:12) • 8. Insult to Injury (3:07) • 9. To Rome (1:58) • 10. Casino di Roma (1:33) • 11. Shut Down The Grid (1:51) • 12. Flight to Budapest (4:49) • 13. Vespa Chase (4:01) • 14. Club Escape (1:27) • 15. Knife Fight (2:31) • 16. Fine is Back (2:43) • 17. Lady Superspy (1:33) • 18. Balaton Showdown (3:55) • 19. Conducting Business (2:18) • 20. Garage Fight/Helicopter/Death of De Luca (5:44) • 21. Agent Susan Cooper (2:19) • 22. Who Can You Trust* (4:42)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The cardboard packaging for the CD product includes a list of performers and notes about the score from both the director and composer.

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