Former wrestler Dave Bautista has the chops, as they say, for comedy. He was terrific in the ensemble of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, playing a claptrap-spouting men’s rights influencer. But there’s not much going on in his performance here, headlining a charmless action comedy as a CIA tough guy in overprotective dad mode. Bautista’s delivery looks practically comatose at points, like a grizzly bear with tranquilliser dart hanging out of its neck, just about to thud to the ground, face bewildered and semi-paralysed.
The movie is a sequel to My Spy from 2020, in which Bautista’s CIA agent JJ is assigned to protect a nine-year-old girl, Sophie (Chloe Coleman). Five years on, JJ is married to Sophie’s mum and, squeezing his hulking frame into a suit, has switched to a desk job to spend more time with his new family. His colleagues think he’s gone soft, and in 14-year-old Sophie’s eyes her stepdad has gone from hero to embarrassment. She wants a bit more freedom (hyper-vigilant JJ gives her a mobile phone with a built-in taser) but is mortified when JJ is picked to chaperone her school choir trip to perform at the Vatican – where, incidentally, some baddies are searching for a Soviet suitcase nuke squirrelled away during the cold war.
