Spy (2015)

I surprised myself by watching this. Not only do I rarely like modern comedies anymore, but spy parodies are too easy and overdone. Still, it had been a while: Get Smart had its final adaptation in 2008, the last Austin Powers entry was in 2002, and James Bond hasn't felt like a self-parody since Die Another Day. More than that, I must have been in the mood for something female-centered (however tomboyish) after so many masculine works, and the fairly high marks across all major ratings sites got me curious.

Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) provides remote tech support to the CIA's answer to Bond, Bradley Fine (Jude Law), from a vermin-infested basement. When an enemy in contact with Fine, Rayna (Rose Byrne), reveals knowledge of him and several other spies, Susan volunteers to enter the field as an unknown, with friend Nancy (Miranda Hart) doing for her what Susan did for Fine. Her mission is strictly track-and-report, but since only Rayna knows the location of an ill-gotten nuke, Susan reluctantly sees fit to do a bit more for Rayna's protection. A further complicating factor is rogue CIA agent Rick Ford (Jason Statham), who places a million times more faith in his own skills than in Susan's, but his contribution has mixed results. (Gee, a lot of British agents work for the U.S.)

Finding Dory (2016)

Normally, I agree with the majority of viewers on which Pixar features are among the best and which are merely OK. Finding Nemo has been the glaring exception: I found it uncreative, overly simple, immature, and unwholesomely preachy. The humor, especially surrounding Dory's anterograde amnesia, is both predictable and politically incorrect. I almost declined my parents' invitation to see Finding Dory in a theater. But maybe my tastes had changed in 13 years. Besides, one reviewer intrigued me by talking about its special positive meaning for people with mental disorders and their families. Being such a person, I had to give it a shot.

Indeed, Dory's not so happy-go-lucky as a main character, nor is her problem played nearly so much for laughs. The movie begins with a look back at her early childhood, with parents lovingly compensating for her "short-term remembery loss." (Many in the theater awwed at the adoryble, strangely rotund, bug-eyed little blue tang voiced by a 7-year-old.) At some point, she got lost, which is 10 times worse with her condition. Fortunately, a young fish is much more self-suffishent than a young human, so she reached adulthood on her own, albeit still searching for her parents -- right up to the moment she met Marlon, whose more pressing search made her forget her own problems altogether. One year later, she suddenly remembers a big clue and heads off on her adventure anew. As more flashbacks come to her, the mystery unfolds.