Owen Wilson got a really lousy seat for the Oscars.

I Spy is a sluggish, formulaic buddy comedy/action picture. It has some laughs and a few exciting moments, but not really enough of either.

Alex Scott (Owen Wilson) is a second-rate secret agent assigned to recover an experimental aircraft that's fallen into the hands of Gundars, a wealthy villain/boxing fan. Eddie Murphy plays prizefighter Kelly Robinson, a name I will never forget because he says it approximately 8,719 times during the course of the movie. He's recruited by the President to get Scott into Gundars' mansion as a member of his entourage. Wacky hijinks and slick spy stuff ensue.

All of which could be — and sometimes is — great fun. Now, I've never seen the '60's TV show that shares a title — and, apparently, little else — with this movie, so don't expect me to whine about the differences between the two; I just don't care. What bothers me is the laziness of the screenplay, the willingness to stop at the easy, predictable joke, the way all its plot twists are telegraphed miles ahead of time, the filmmakers' indifference to whether any of it make sense. When Alex rappels down into Gundars' office, through a seemingly solid ceiling, would it have been so much trouble to show us how he got in? When he and Kelly end up on an 18-wheeler loaded with cars and proceed to smash, steal and blow up a few of them, shouldn't the truck driver have noticed, maybe even pulled over? The script feels like either a first, under-developed draft or a fifteenth, with all the logic bleached out in favor of sight gags and senseless action.

What makes the movie watchable is the casting of the two leads. Murphy and Wilson are both extremely funny guys with nicely contrasting styles. Murphy's manic over-confidence and Wilson's laid-back wryness play well off each other. If some of the gags go on a little too long, that's really more the fault of director Betty Thomas who doesn't seem to have the feel for this material that she did for The Brady Bunch Movie. Speaking of, Gary Cole, who did such a great job channeling Mike Brady in that film, here plays Carlos, a Latino super spy. Take a moment to think about that, because it's just . . . odd. As for the rest of the cast, Famke Janssen is funny and sexy as Alex' colleague/love interest, but Malcolm McDowell seems to be going through the motions as the oily villain, though, in his defense he wasn't really given much to work with.

Overall, I really can't recommend I Spy unless you're really desperate for a laugh and are willing to sit through a lot to get to it. Not even the charms of Murphy and Wilson can raise this movie above the level of sitcom silliness.

Gorilla Pants rating: 1 out of 4 bananas