“Spies in Disguise” is everything a parody of a spy movie has been missing and, simultaneously, is also the best actual spy movie I have seen since “Skyfall”. It had the entire theater cracking up, from kids as young as 2 to their grandparents! Honestly, when I first saw the trailer my expectations were very low because I assumed it would be cliche. Will Smith seemed to play an obviously very “Will Smith” type of character as a charismatic and popular funny guy and too perfect of a role always makes me cringe. But it was not that at all. I’m going to go ahead and tell everyone right now that they need to see this film ASAP. It’s necessary.

Will Smith plays Agent Sterling, who is at first, a know-it-all super spy. Everyone at the agency loves him and all the bad guys fear him. In the beginning of the film, at the end of a high-fiving, congratulatory scene he cockily shrugs his coat and off flies glitter and kitten apparitions instead of an intimidating spy trick. He insists on meeting the creator of his coat to find out how this embarrassing error occurred. He then meets Walter, voiced by Tom Holland! Walter is one of the newer, albeit goofier, scientists in the lab and he explains to Sterling that he is focused on creating spy technology that encourage safety and disarming, not violence. Agent Sterling is all about taking the enemy out so he does not approve and fires Walter on the spot, but not before Walter explains many things he is working on… such as disappearing! Agent Sterling soon finds himself needing Walter’s help in this matter but he accidentally gets himself turned into a pigeon! This slowly but surely assists him in his hubris issue and the two become the best, and funniest, spy duo I have seen in a long time.

This is the hardest I’ve laughed at a movie in forever! My favorite scene, which is incredibly hard to choose, is when Walter finally gets that tough guy confidence knowing he is a pretty good spy and it just goes all kinds of wrong for him. He’s in a chase scene and pulls the classic “This is official business” line proceeding to steal someone’s vehicle but since they’re in Italy it’s a motorbike and he instantly crashes the thing into the building directly in front of him and it blows up. Unharmed, he immediately looks at the motorbiker next to them and says it again. Pure gold! Of course, the entire movie being based around a pigeon voiced by Will Smith is hilarity on its own. Now, in the beginning of the movie, it is a very typecasted role for him, but transforming into a pigeon and, thus, having to transform his approach really exemplifies the depth of his character and the theme of the film. Funny enough, becoming a pigeon makes him a more optimal spy. Tom Holland’s character has a true impact on him and Walter himself becomes the best partner a spy could have.

At first, I really did not think these two characters were going to play well off each other, but they’re perfect! This pair is written so extremely compatible that I don’t remember life without this duo. Sure, it seems a little jock meets nerd, but this story spins that on its head and the nerd ends up being the coolest person of the team and makes the jock rethink everything. Spies in Disguise asks you to question what true revenge should look like, what potential wars could look like, and makes you reconsider what winning, in these scenarios, SHOULD be. With a message like that and a duo of two brilliant spies, I gladly give this fantastic, side-splitting movie a 10.