'Spy': Melissa McCarthy is a blast in this terrific summer comedy

Melissa McCarthy in Spy

Spy is the Melissa McCarthy comedy I've been waiting for. Let me explain why...

It brilliantly plays to her strengths and surrounds her with a game and talented supporting cast which helps keep the laughs (and quite top-notch action) flying. I think it deserves to be a big hit.

It's been a while since I saw a mainstream Hollywood comedy that really made me laugh -- the state of the genre has been in decline thanks to the likes of Adam Sandler and Kevin James.

But McCarthy has become a bit of a silver lining in a dreary marketplace. She is a truly original and endearing comic character and for once she is given a fully rounded person to play as opposed to a type.

While in The Heat she was so caustic she was unlikable, and in Identity Theft so sappy it was sickening -- here she is the right mix of self deprecating and in-your-face. She plays a routinely overlooked CIA agent who's been confined to her desk too long while the more traditional agents (played hilariously by Jude Law and a scene-stealing Jason Statham) get all the daring jobs in the field.

Through a series of convoluted events McCarthy gets her chance -- and as her character would put it, she's a hoot. It's refreshing to see a summer movie season with so many kick-butt heroines, from McCarthy here to the female stars of Tomorrowland and Mad Max: Fury Road. It's not as if Hollywood has gotten it's act together in terms of its representation of women -- but it's a start.

This film's ladies are formidable, especially Rose Byrne who has a field day with the usually thankless role of the bad guy and a British actress I hadn't seen in anything before, Miranda Hart, who plays McCarthy's best friend and sidekick.

Spy is a little overlong and strangely portrays a CIA where nearly all the agents aren't American, but these are minor quibbles. This is a return to form for McCarthy and her director Paul Fieg who seems to have rekindled the crack comic timing he and his leading lady had in Bridesmaids in this raucous R-rated comedy.

The film is foul-mouthed, really violent and sort of relentless in a way too few comedies are these days. I had a blast with it and I bet you will too.