Producers: Sunil Perkash, Ryan R. Johnson, Martin Sprock, Anil Yadav and Akaash Yadav         Director: Drew Mylrea   Screenplay: Mark Famiglietti and Lane Garrison   Cast: Drew Van Acker, Poppy Delevingne, Natasha Bassett, Max Silvestri, Brittany Furlan, Blake Anderson, Winslow Bright, Dave Sheridan, Lane Garrison, Brian Sacca, Migs Govea and Akaash Yadav   Distributor: Cinedigm

Grade:  C-

There’s the germ of an amusing idea in “Spy Intervention,” but the makers have managed to squelch whatever potential it had.   

A romantic comedy set in the world of espionage, it centers on Corey (Drew Van Acker), a handsome agent working with a partner called Smuts (Blake Anderson).  They’ve been a highly successful pair, but in a new mission Corey meets, and falls for Pam (Poppy Delevingne), a pretty store clerk.  So taken is he that he chucks the spy game altogether and settles into a normal suburban life, taking a humdrum job as a box salesman and trying to fit in with his lower-middle-class office colleagues. 

Naturally he becomes disenchanted with his new life, and Smuts, who thinks he’d made a mistake anyway, arranges for an intervention—Corey’s given an offer: come in for one mission and if, after he’s handled it, he still wants to return to suburbia, that will be it.

The catch is that in order to trap Egan (Max Silvestri), the villain who’s purloined some unspecified WMD, Corey will have to pretend to be married to luscious seductress Alexandria (Natasha Bassett).  Naturally Pam, prompted by her voluble, snarky store colleague Brianna (Britanny Furlan), will become suspicious of where her husband is spending all his extra time, and everything comes together at a party Pam’s hosting for their friends.    

“Spy Intervention” is obviously a modestly-budgeted picture—a fact exhibited in Rob Ebeltoft’s production design—but cinematographer Danny Grunes takes advantage of some New York locations and generally gives the images a glossy look.  There’s a lot of dancing in the movie, too, and Jules Bakshi’s choreography deserves notice, although the moves are sometimes more creepy than attractive.

As to the cast, Van Acker gets to show off his physique to good advantage, but overall his performance consists largely of smug smiles and preening.  Delevingne is a little pallid, but Bassett and Furlan make up for that with over-the-top turns.  Anderson’s supposed to be hilarious, but falls far short of that.  Drew Mylrea’s direction seems rather permissive and lackadaisical, and his editing is little better, while Roger Suen’s score is overly insistent.

In the end, “Spy Intervention” is undermined by the fact that the espionage component never generates the slightest hint of genuine danger, and the romantic element is contrived and obvious.  It’s the sort of mediocre effort that would fit snugly into the playlist of a streaming service, but it’s woefully out of place in theatres.