A comedy with action overtones, 2018’s The Spy Who Dumped Me introduces us to Audrey (Mila Kunis) and her best pal Morgan (Kate McKinnon). Weeks earlier, Audrey’s boyfriend Drew (Justin Theroux) abruptly broke up with her via text message, and she struggles to work through this event.

Before long, Audrey learns that Drew works as a CIA agent, and he draws her into a case. Drew gets killed along the way so Audrey and Morgan decide to leap into action to continue his shenanigans.

When I saw the trailer for Dumped, I thought it looked like a probable hoot. The promo played up all sorts of humor and left the movie as an apparent comedic sure thing.

Since I’m 51 years old, you’d think I’d know better than to trust trailers, but I guess I’m a dope. Dumped doesn’t end up as a complete flop, but it definitely fails to live up to the expectations established by the advertisement.

I don’t mind that Dumped comes with a theme that we’ve seen multiple times in the past. Though his films went for a less comedic orientation, Alfred Hitchcock used the “ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances” theme many times, and just a few years back, 2015’s Spy pursued a fairly similar mix of comedy and action.

While I didn’t love Spy, I thought it offered a general satisfying adventure. I hoped Dumped would be at least as good – and maybe better – but the end result becomes meandering and spotty.

The movie’s first act actually does reasonably well for itself, as it offers a decent number of laughs. The film sets up its presence in a fairly efficient manner along with the comedy.

The longer the flick goes, however, the more it loses steam – and Dumped occasionally feels like it’ll run forever. Spy pushed past the two-hour mark, and that became an obstacle despite the movie’s strengths.

Dumped nudges close to that two-hour span, but it feels much longer since it lacks the laughs of Spy. The movie comes with many opportunities to conclude that it ignores, so it plods on and on well past the point where it should finish.

A shorter Dumped would achieve a higher laugh to length ratio and also leave the viewer less bored. The movie simply doesn’t know when to wrap up, so it gets old well before the credits roll.

Dumped does come with a nice cast, and Kunis and McKinnon combine for most of the movie’s humor, though McKinnon feels out of place at times. Whereas Kunis and the others tend to play matters fairly straight, McKinnon seems stuck in Saturday Night Live mode.

This means McKinnon mugs and grimaces and gesticulates through the film in a performance that can become a distraction. She generates enough laughs to allow me to forgive her excesses, but McKinnon still needs to tone down her act.

When a movie’s biggest laugh comes from the reveal of Morgan’s last name, it’s in trouble. Unquestionably, I’ve seen much worse comedies than Dumped, but this one still turns into a disappointment.

Footnote: two tag scenes show up in the end credits.

The Spy Who Dumped Me appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie offered a quality presentation.

For the most part, sharpness worked well. A little softness occasionally hit some wide elements, but the majority of the movie boasted accurate delineation.

No signs of jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and I witnessed no instances of edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to mar the proceedings.

To the surprise of no one, Dumped went with teal and especially orange. Tedious as those choices may seem, the image reproduced the colors as intended.

Blacks seemed dense and deep, while shadows offered appropriate smoothness and clarity. The Blu-ray reproduced the film well.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the film’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack added oomph to the proceedings, as the soundscape opened up matters in a positive manner. Music offered nice breadth and filled the channels in a consistent manner.

With a mix of lively scenes, the soundfield offered a lot of chances for fireworks, and it used them well. Gunfire, explosions, car chases – all the usual action components popped up and created an involving impression.

Audio quality appeared good, with speech that came across as natural and distinctive. Effects also seemed accurate and tight, with clear reproduction of these components.

Music worked well, as the songs/score boasted solid range and dimensionality. This became a more than satisfactory track for the film.

A handful of extras fill out the disc, and we get a few featurettes that start with Covert Operations. It runs 11 minutes, 15 seconds and includes notes from writer/director Susanna Fogel, writer David Iserson, executive producers Guy Riedel and Karen Lunder, producer Brian Grazer, and actors Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Sam Heughan, Hasan Minhaj, Justin Theroux, Ivanna Sakhno, and Gillian Anderson.

“Covert” looks at the movie’s roots and development, cast and performances, sets and locations. “Covert” throws out a smattering of good notes but it feels pretty fluffy.

Next we find The Action Behind the Film, a nine-minute, four-second piece with Kunis, Minhaj, Heughan, Fogel, Theroux, McKinnon, and 2nd unit director/stunt coordinator Gary Powell. As implied by the title, this show focused on the film’s action scenes. It’s a decent overview that scores points via the copious use of behind the scenes footage.

One of the actors comes to the fore via Makin’ Friends with Hasan Minhaj. It takes up six minutes, 46 seconds and shows Minhaj as he takes us on a tour of the set. “Friends” leans comedic and offers minor entertainment.

11 Deleted Scenes take up a total of nine minutes, 35 seconds. Most focus on our lead ladies, though a few supporting characters get time as well. None of them expand story areas, but they offer a few chuckles.

A collection of Outtakes goes for six minutes, 41 seconds. Most of these give us goofs and giggles, though some alternate lines allow it to become better than average.

We also find a reel called Off Script. It lasts six minutes, seven seconds and delivers a full compilation of unused line choices.

The disc opens with ads for A Simple Favor, Uncle Drew, and Overboard (2018). No trailer for Dumped appears here.

A comedic disappointment, The Spy Who Dumped Me musters a handful of laughs. However, these don’t seem like enough to compensate for the prevalence of witless scenes and a general absence of inspiration. The Blu-ray brings very good picture and audio along with a decent set of supplements. I can’t claim to actively dislike Dumped but it falls far short of hopes.