A potent combination of jokes and violent action, The Spy Who Dumped Me successfully harnesses the tone for which last August’s three-week box office champ The Hitman’s Bodyguard strove and never achieved.

While the 2017 stinker had the seemingly can’t-miss, foul-mouthed comedic duo of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, it didn’t have the brilliance of Kate McKinnon, nor the repressed funny bone of Mila Kunis, who gets to show those talents instead of playing the straight woman as she does in the Bad Moms movies.

Directed and co-written by Susanna Fogel, the fairly simple set-up alluded to in the film’s title finds best friends Audrey (Kunis) and Morgan (McKinnon) thrust into espionage once the former’s boyfriend Drew (Justin Theroux) is revealed to be a CIA operative.

A non-stop barrage of laughs and surprisingly well-staged action sequences ensues as the duo traverses some of mainland Europe’s prized destinations. Much like Mission: Impossible - Fallout, it goes on for two, maybe three missions too long, but with humor firmly at its core, The Spy Who Dumped Me weathers credulity issues and emerges as the summer’s superior international agent experience. 

Grade: B. Rated R. Now playing at AMC Classic, Biltmore Grande and Carolina Cinemark

(Photo: Lionsgate)