How are bad movies made? The typical major studio motion picture takes at least a year or two from scratch to finished product, so it is hard to imagine that during that period of time someone wouldn’t at least mention how undeniably horrid the movie is before it gets shipped to the public.

With every bad movie, there is a writer that spent months of his life revolving around the one-dimensional characters and dim-witted plot.

Then there is the production executive who, instead of slapping the writer about the face, gave him money for the rights to bring this pile of donkey manure to life.

Next, there are the actors who agreed to play the insipid characters. This list could go on forever with the people who unknowingly let this be presented to the public, but let’s suffice to say that occasionally horrid movies slip through the cracks and are made out to be something worthwhile.

I Spy is such a movie. Based on the ’60s television show, I Spy follows the exploits of Alex Scott (Owen Wilson) and Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy) as they try to regain possession of a super top-secret military jet called the Switchblade. Scott is a spy with the National Bureau of Security who acts more like a bungle than a Bond. Robinson is the cocky, world middle-weight boxing champion who is brought in on the assignment to help as Scott’s cover while he tries to find out who has the plane. At first, they are rather combative over control of the mission, but they slowly become close friends through their many adventures and misadventures together.

Add in fellow spy and sex-cat Rachel (Famke Janssen) and perennial evil-doer Malcolm McDowell as wealthy arms dealer Arnold Gundar and we’ve got something that even a middle-school student would think is rather forced.

Murphy does well as Robinson, though one gets the sense that Murphy felt obligated to add a little more flare to compensate for the sagging plot. He’s flash, he’s over the top, he’s downright silly at times–he fills his role as the joke man perfectly. Wilson also tries hard to fill his role as the straight man, but he gets trapped in his own stereotype. As a duo, Wilson and Murphy do combine for some hilarious moments that were bullied into the plot, but those moments cannot carry the weight of the entire film.

Fans of big explosions and stupid laughs should flock to see this movie. It is so over the top and juvenile that it can’t help but have a little charm–like the lovable stupid kid in class who can never get the right answer, but still raises that hand. It will not be up for any Oscars any time soon, but its pure inanity does serve as a brief reprieve from the depressing reality in which we all live.