With the possible exception of Behind Enemy Lines, any film with Owen Wilson is worth seeing. The combination of smarm and innocence, goofiness and sly irony, can redeem almost anything. And that makes him an ideal comedy partner to a Type A personality like Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon and now Eddie Murphy in Betty Thomas's farcical adaptation of the '60s TV series I Spy.

Wilson's Alexander Scott is a Maxwell Smartish secret agent assigned to recover a stolen stealth plane hidden somewhere in Budapest. To create a cover, he joins the entourage of Murphy's Kelly Robinson, an obnoxious boxing champ fighting a title bout in town. The bloated plot, eerily similar to that of XXX, only distracts from the three or so hilarious scenes between Wilson and Murphy in which they bullshit each other. In one, Wilson woos his comely colleague Rachel (Famke Janssen) with a rendition of "Sexual Healing" as prompted by Murphy; it's an instant comedy classic.

Less tolerable is the film's misogynistic aftertaste -- does Janssen need to threaten castration twice? -- and its retrograde racial stereotyping. The devolution of Kelly Robinson from a suave Bill Cosby to an eye-popping, gold-chained Murphy is a sign of the times. (102 minutes) At the Apple Valley, Entertainment, Flagship, Holiday, Providence Place Mall 16, Showcase, and Tri-Boro cinemas.