Central Intelligence
Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Written by: Ike Barinholtz &
David Stassen and Rawson Marshall Thurber.
Starring: Dwayne Johnson (Bob
Stone), Kevin Hart (Calvin Joyner), Amy Ryan (Agent Pamela Harris), Danielle
Nicolet (Maggie), Jason Bateman (Trevor), Aaron Paul (Phil), Ryan Hansen
(Steve), Tim Griffin (Agent Stan Mitchell), Timothy John Smith (Agent Nick
Cooper), Sione Kelepi (Young Robbie), Dylan Boyack (Trevor - 17 Years Old),
Thomas Kretschmann (The Buyer), Megan Park (Waitress).
Central
Intelligence is pretty much the textbook definition of an enjoyable, mediocre
movie. Watching the film, you will almost certainly have fun. The film combines
the considerable talents of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, who have an easy,
unforced chemistry together playing off each other wonderfully for 100 minutes,
before the film ends. Even now, just a few days after seeing the film, the plot
details have started to become hazy – and that’s mainly because they don’t
matter – the film is about getting these two stars together. And, you know
what, it mainly works. Watching the film you’ll have fun. At the end, you’ll
forget pretty much everything you’ve seen.
The
opens in high school, where Calvin Joyner (Hart) was pretty much the king of
the school – voted most likely to succeed, and a part of pretty much every club
and sports team nothing was going to stop Calvin from greatness. Bob (Johnson)
was completely different – overweight, goofy and unpopular – the constant
target of bullies – the two come together at an assembly, where Calvin is the
only one who will do Bob a solid when he’s been publicly humiliated.
Flash
forward 20 years, and things haven’t turned out the way Calvin expected. He’s
an accountant – and good at his job – but he isn’t setting the world on fire.
He fears he peaked in high school – and perhaps he’s right. Then he gets a
friend request from a name he doesn’t recognize, and accepts, because, you know
its Facebook and that’s what you do. It turns out to be Bob, using a different
name, who convinces Calvin to come out for drinks that night. Bob is nothing
like Calvin remembered – he looks like, well, The Rock now – and before he
knows it, Bob has involved Calvin in a large, action packed conspiracy, where
Calvin doesn’t know what to believe. Bob, it turns out, is in the CIA – but now
they’re after him, saying he betrayed his partner and his country. But Bob
still seems like a big goof – at least until he’s pushed, and then he becomes
an action star.
Johnson
and Hart make an unlikely team in the most likely way imaginable – Johnson’s
huge, Hart’s small. This is another movie where Hart is basically playing a
version of his typical screen persona – motor mouthed, scared, charming and
funny. You know he has to be a loser in the film since they make him an
accountant (my profession doesn’t produce cool movie characters). Hart can do
this role easily, but he goes all out with it. As for Johnson, this is the mode
I like him in the better – goofy and funny, self-effacing, and pure charm. The
two work well together, with Johnson’s goofy nonchalance, and Hart’s scaredy
cat antics working well together.
And
that’s basically it. The movie isn’t high art, and doesn’t aspire to be. It’s
not even a particularly example of its particularly genre – 48 Hours and
Midnight Run don’t have to worry about being supplanted by this one – but for a
couple of hours, it’s kind of fun – and when it comes on TBS in a year, you’ll
be able to watch it again, wondering the whole time why this movie you’ve never
seen seems vaguely familiar.
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