Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Everyone involved seems to have had a good time with "Spy," and so will the audience.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
What does work, in every scene, is Melissa McCarthy's performance. She's as funny and as winning as anyone in the movies these days.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
McCarthy and Byrne's scenes together are cruelly hilarious, with the kind of no-holds-barred insult humor that makes you instinctively drop your jaw and cover your mouth.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
If they do a sequel (teased in the final seconds), they should cut down on the endless, tedious chases and shootouts.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
Melissa McCarthy doesn't just adopt guises to fool the bad guys in "Spy." Part of what makes the action comedy such a loopy blast is the identity shifts she pulls on the audience.

Name : David Ehrlich / Alias : Time Out
The tricksy plot allows McCarthy to explore the full range of her comic persona, and Feig is smart enough to get out of her way as the mild-mannered Susan starts wielding f-bombs as comfortably as Bond whips around a Walther PPK.

Name : Liam Lacey / Alias : Globe and Mail
Although this fish-out-of-water scenario might sound over-familiar, both the humour and action here are startling and visceral .

Name : John DeFore / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Melissa McCarthy comes into her own as a comic star in Spy, stepping out from recent supporting- and co-headlining roles to become the big screen A-lister she promised to be in 2011's Bridesmaids.

Name : Mark Olsen / Alias : Los Angeles Times
"Spy" may not be a great movie, but it is great fun. And at times it will have you wondering if there's that much of a difference.

Name : Jake Coyle / Alias : Associated Press
It's a globe-trotting tour of McCarthy's talent, throughout which she's practically always kicking butt. Who was that double-O-what's-his-face, anyway?

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A breezy, enjoyable comedy, and an ideal vehicle for the endearing McCarthy.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
Rare is the broad mainstream comedy that can goof on its bigger-budget Hollywood siblings while providing a few moments of sincere uplift.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
Hollywood is gradually figuring out what to do with Melissa McCarthy.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Put the woman in any damn thing she pleases. She's that good.

Name : Randy Myers / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
Feig draws out McCarthy's best, and she's up to the challenge, whether it's expressing tenderness and anger or slapsticking her way through the physical humor.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
If a Spy sequel isn't already in the works, they better get cracking. Nefarious terrorists and numskull guys await.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
McCarthy is not a one-size-fits-all talent; she needs the right vehicle. Here, Feig has given her precisely the right vehicle, and she shines.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Feig keeps throwing so much stuff at you - gross-out gags, chases, brutal violence, not to mention actors working their heads off - that he finally wears down your resistance.

Name : Bob Mondello / Alias : NPR
Feig's cheerfully feminist script makes only as much sense as it absolutely must, while providing McCarthy with chances to crack wise, show vulnerability and class, and do some of the more elegant pratfalls you'll have seen in a while.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
The busy, silly script allows Ms. McCarthy to be her own best sidekick, in effect an entire sketch-comedy troupe unto herself.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
Melissa McCarthy gets the funniest, most versatile and sustained comic showcase of her movie career in this deliriously entertaining action-comedy.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
The intel is in: Melissa McCarthy can carry a comedy. Specifically, "Spy."

Name : Richard Brody / Alias : New Yorker
Melissa McCarthy shines in this clever action-comedy showcase provided by the writer and director Paul Feig, but the movie's tightly contrived plot and uniformly positive emotions constrain her comic genius.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
The characters are one-dimensional. The narrative is flat and obvious.

Name : Andrew Lapin / Alias : NPR
Spy is actually quite funny. It even proves itself to be in the same league with the first two films in Feig's loose comic trilogy, Bridesmaids and The Heat .

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : L.A. Weekly
Spy is a call to arms for the cowed, and a riotous skewering of the workplace kings

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
McCarthy and director Paul Feig, are a dynamite team, with Feig's script a bonanza of zingers and femcentric subtext.

Name : Dana Stevens / Alias : Slate
Spy lampoons sexism without abandoning sex-a tough tone for a comedy to strike but one that Feig and McCarthy manage to accomplish with both a sense of justice and a sense of humor.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
McCarthy has much more to discover about herself as an actor and an avatar and a cultural signifier, and I hope she doesn't get trapped by one role, one genre or one franchise. But her campaign of conquest is going well.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
[It] does have its moments, and it does have McCarthy. And while it's not worth much more than a rent, it does make us look forward to what she's going to do with "Ghostbusters."

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
Feig's movies aren't particularly stylish - the visuals in "Spy" are serviceable at best, and the makeup is particularly un-subtle - but they possess a silly, sweet streak that makes them irresistibly infectious.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
One part parody, one part thriller, one part lethal satire of movie sexism.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
"Spy," plus popcorn, feels just right.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
In Spy, she's playing a caricature that is almost a complete character. The movie isn't out to humiliate her. It wants to prop up a version of heroism that makes sense for McCarthy.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
The fun of "Spy" comes in watching the right actors mess with their own images, blithely.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
It's as if writer/director Paul Feig studied an Ian Fleming list of everything you're not supposed to do in a spy yarn, then did it all - thereby producing an excellent adventure movie so funny you can barely catch your breath between scenes.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
Finally, after the promise shown in "Bridesmaids" but sold short since by weak scripts in films like "Tammy" and "Identity Thief," Melissa McCarthy gets a movie vehicle worthy of her talents.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
With the overlong, limp and lazy "Spy," Feig has lost his mojo.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
Clinging to false heroism and terrified of anything too dark, The Mechanic is a tough-guy movie for wimps.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
The result is just good enough to pass as an action flick you watch with the forgiving gaze that comes from too many beers and too little sleep.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
Let's not denigrate the term "action film" by applying it to the remake signed by director Simon West. This is a violence film, not an action film.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : Associated Press
Statham, the British star of the Transporter and Crank films and an old favorite of Guy Ritchie, has a quietly fierce physicality, a stylish masculinity that makes him appealing to both men and women.

Name : Glenn Kenny / Alias : MSN Movies
The Mechanic is my kind of action movie: nasty, brutish, brisk and ass-kicking.

Name : Liam Lacey / Alias : Globe and Mail
There just isn't enough consistent energy to light up the glum, generic plot or enliven the one-dimensional performances.

Name : Derek Adams / Alias : Time Out
With its unrelenting violence and obligatory bonking sessions, this is one for avid 'Stath' fans only.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
The new stunts are explosive, over-the-top and a sign of the times - action fans aren't happy these days, it seems, unless at least one scene involves a jackknifing 18-wheeler and a fireball.

Name : Josh Modell / Alias : AV Club
Statham and Foster play off each other nicely, and director Simon West strikes a playful balance between carnage and conviviality, gore and gregariousness.

Name : Roger Ebert / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
"The Mechanic" tells a story as old as "Hamlet" in a style as new as unbaked bread. What's the point?

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Frantic, numbing redo of the Charles Bronson original for hardcore Statham and action fans only.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
It's about gunplay and pricey sports cars bursting into flames while three or four cameras capture the moment. In slo-mo. Cue the cool music.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
To the extent it makes sense, it's a collection of time-honored cliches, and to the extent that it's original, "The Mechanic" is insane, bordering on gloriously insane.

Name : Bruce Diones / Alias : New Yorker
Statham is a model of control; he's steely and graceful in his action scenes, and his interplay with the wiry Foster delivers the goods.

Name : Mark Jenkins / Alias : NPR
Betrayal, sympathy and regret are central to the story, but there's hardly any room for such feelings amid the clockwork carnage.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
An intermittently arresting, mostly standard action entry that deals death noisily more than cleverly - a lot like the original.

Name : Owen Gleiberman / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
The Mechanic is ham-fisted pulp, like Robert Rodriguez's Machete taking itself seriously.

Name : Rene Rodriguez / Alias : Miami Herald
Haven't we already had enough movies about solitary, enigmatic hit men? Is there anything possibly left to do with the genre that's new?

Name : Manohla Dargis / Alias : New York Times
A sputtering remake in need of a more powerful recharge.

Name : Leah Rozen / Alias : TheWrap
Statham, he of the chiseled physique and sexily receding hairline, holds his own here, doing what he has to in scenes and no more - which is perfect for a movie like this.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
While that pop mythology was still relatively fresh back in Bronson's day, it's so played out at this point that not even the enjoyably no-nonsense Statham can pump any life into it.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Even by the sloppy, soulless standards of hit man movies, "The Mechanic" is a mess.

Name : Brian Lowry / Alias : Variety
It proves middling, and occasionally muddled, on almost every level.

Name : Scott Bowles / Alias : USA Today
The first legitimate action film of 2011.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
Considerably more fun than the rather lethargic original.

Name : John Anderson / Alias : Washington Post
"The Mechanic," 2011 edition, is a striking-looking work, combining an arty inkiness with a retro-graininess that more or less screams 1970s, albeit without the cliches and flatness. If only you liked the people in the picture.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
Mr. Statham, the specialist in English tough guys who was so affecting in "The Bank Job," has more to offer than "The Mechanic" has the grace to receive.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
The Mechanic is adequate light entertainment for those who enjoy thrillers, but it is uneven and the underwhelming ending will disappoint those who enjoyed the delicious irony served up by its predecessor.

Name : Mary F. Pols / Alias : TIME Magazine
The interplay between dry Arthur and crazy, caustic Steve is what makes the movie fun.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
Jason Statham needs to get a tune-up, switch gears and hit the gas.

Name : Brian Miller / Alias : L.A. Weekly
The Company Men with guns, but no families or pensions. All they have is their job, and retirement literally equals death.

Name : Una LaMarche / Alias : New York Observer
The Mechanic is like a Beretta loaded with blanks - quick and brutal but ultimately empty.

Name : Keith Uhlich / Alias : Time Out
Depth of character is traded for bloody broad strokes.

Name : John Hartl / Alias : Seattle Times
West's slick, fairly faithful new remake gives partial screenplay credit to Lewis John Carlino, who wrote the original "Mechanic." But the picture isn't likely to do for Jason Statham what the 1972 film did for Bronson.

Name : Dana Stevens / Alias : Slate
The Arthur/Steve relationship at the movie's heart is what lifts The Mechanic above the common run of kablammo! action thrillers.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
Statham is, in his understated way, a satisfying action star, stoically going about his business. Foster is just a flat-out good actor, as anyone who saw his work in "The Messenger" or "3:10 to Yuma" can attest.

Name : Greg Quill / Alias : Toronto Star
Standard Statham stuff.