Delayed Reaction: Superintelligence

Premise: An average woman is chosen by a super computer to determine if humanity is worth saving.

 

This is the fourth Melissa McCarthy movie directed by her husband Ben Falcone. I haven't been a fan of that formula in the past. I found the first three movies (Life of the Party, The Boss, Tammy) to be deeply unlikeable. The Boss and Tammy in particular went way too far to make McCarthy unlikable and couldn't back it up with laughs. So, I've given up on this partnership. At this point, I don't want Melissa McCarthy to have that much control over a star vehicle for herself. She did also cowrite those first three movies. Superintelligence is a slight course-correction.

 

Superintelligence was directed by Falcone still but wasn't written by him or McCarthy (WGA credit, at least). It's a spiritual sequel to Spy, her best post-Bridesmaids comedy, in a lot of ways, again, throwing her lack of confidence into a high-tech world of government agencies and averting wide-scale disaster. Overall, I did find this movie to be a pleasant enough watch. As great as fearless, brash McCarthy can be, she's equally good in a transformative role that allows her to gain confidence along the way. She has good chemistry with Bobby Cannavale, who plays her ex-boyfriend who she split up with for poor reasons years before. James Corden is game as the voice and visualization of the supercomputer*. I appreciate the completely other movie that Brian Tyree Henry, Sam Richardson, and Jean Smart among others are in the rest of the time, trying to take down the supercomputer. I like the running gag about Henry complementing everything about Jean Smart as the president. It's not the greatest use for any of them, but it's not embarrassing either.

 

*Technically, it's a cloud-based superintelligence that can move across all electronic devices and James Corden is only the personification for McCarthy because she finds him comforting. Supercomputer is just easier to type.

 

This movie fails the most important test in that I didn't find it very funny. I remember smiling at a couple points but never laughing. It was an easy movie to leave on though. I imagine I'd've been more disappointed by it had I seen it in theaters, so...thanks, COVID, I guess.

 

As a final note, I wonder how much longer Melissa McCarthy can keep this going. Since her breakout in 2011 with Bridesmaids, she's been a big and reliable box office draw in an age when there aren't many of those. I see some shades of Adam Sandler in her though in the characters she likes to play. Sandler had a rough go of making the man-children work once he hit his 40s. McCarthy is 50 now and I wonder how much longer she can fight off more of these mom rolls. Like Sandler, a lot of her best stuff lately has been the serious awards plays like Can You Ever Forgive Me. I'd hate to see her movie entirely away from the pure comedies, but I wonder how she'll navigate them from here.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend