Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon went on Ellen to premiere the first trailer for their upcoming comedy, The Spy Who Dumped Me, and holy crap does this movie look good. Comedy trailers are tricky—the trailer could be all the funny bits and then the movie itself disappoints—but this trailer is good enough that I hope these aren’t all the funny bits. I laughed twice during the trailer: Once at the slow-crash gag—a classic that always works—and once at the Minion joke at the end (it’s the way Kate McKinnon says “really weird ads”). I’m also getting a Spy vibe, which is not a bad comparison to evoke as Spy is very funny and criminally underappreciated. Yesterday I didn’t know The Spy Who Dumped Me existed, today I am looking forward to it. If this is a deceptive trailer, I might actually cry. Rough Night did not deliver—please don’t make us relive that disappointment. Let us have this female-driven friendship comedy.
As she did with Rough Night, McKinnon looks poised to steal the show. She’s the one pushing most of the humor in the trailer. Which is kind of weird because Kunis got her start on a comedy show but she has not developed into a very good comedy performer. She gets a lot of comedy gigs—thanks to That 70’s Show and the Seth McFarlane connection, she’s always going to have comedy employment—but she is never the funniest person in a scene. She’s rarely even a funny person in a scene.
I can feel you arguing with me already but take off the fan goggles for a second and hit up YouTube and ask yourself if she is actually funny, or if she’s just surrounded by funny people. I wish she was doing more stuff like Black Swan, but here we are. Case in point: Their appearance on Ellen to promote the trailer. Kate McKinnon improvising a Bachelor cameraman’s response to the insanity of that show is why she’s a breakout SNL star, and Kunis seems funny by association. Still, if she’s the straight man to Kate McKinnon, I can live with that dynamic. McKinnon is so funny no one else needs to be.
