Central Intelligence

Central Intelligence

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Amy Ryan, Danielle Nicolet

Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber

The Story:
In 1996, senior Calvin Joyner (Kevin Hart) was Mr. Popular.  He was the captain of the football, basketball and track teams, president of the drama club, Prom King, voted "Most Likely to Succeed" and dating the school's most attractive woman, Maggie (Danielle Nicolet).  On the day of their final pep rally, a group of bullies threw a naked Robbie Wierdicht (Dwayne Johnson) into the gym, making fun of him because he was overweight.  Calvin covered Robbie up with his letterman's jacket.

Twenty years later, Calvin and Maggie are now married, and Calvin is working as an accountant, and feels his life is rather meaningless.  That is, until Robbie - who now goes by Bob Stone - reconnects before their twentieth high school reunion.  Now a muscle-bound jock, Robbie also works for the CIA, and is being hunted by Agent Pamela Harris (Amy Ryan) because she feels he killed his old partner and is trying to sell satellite codes to the highest bidder.  Robbie needs Calvin's help to clear his name and find out who is trying to frame him.  Calvin is unsure who to trust at first, but as he and Robbie spend more time together, he begins to side with his old high school classmate.  However, it could end up being his ultimate downfall if he trusts the wrong person.

The Synopsis:
"Central Intelligence" is one of those films where you feel like you've seen it before.  That's because you probably have in countless other movies like "Ride Along," "The Other Guys," "21 Jump Street" and the like.  We're not given anything highly cerebral, even if the script sometimes seems to appear to give some glimpses of such genius.  Instead, it's a cookie-cutter, paint-by-numbers tale of two totally different people who never would get along in the real world, working together to clear their names and find the real culprit hiding in the shadows.

Kevin Hart has been over-saturated as of late, appearing in films with the likes of Ice Cube and Will Ferrell, where he plays the same signature character - the overly short Everyman who is highly jittery and overly loud.  He hasn't really stepped out of his comfort zone, and it's beginning to get rather stale.  There were some laughs had at his expense, but for a comedy cop buddy film, it was surprisingly few and far between.  Surprisingly, his best performance lately was voicing the maniacal Snowball the rabbit from "The Secret Life of Pets."

It's Dwayne Johnson that supports the film on his broad, rippling shoulders as he lets loose on his comedic side and delivers a pretty hysterical performance (even if there's moments where the banter is rather repetitive, showing some ad-libbing to the script).  He's not afraid to make fun of himself, especially since he wears a fanny pack throughout the film.  One might not notice, but this is a self-defecating act of humor on his part, as he was widely ridiculed for a picture from the 90s that emerged with him wearing a fanny pack. 

Yet even he falls victim to some tragic pitfalls in the story, most notably the opening scenes where he's supposed to play a fat man, and instead they just used CGI to graft his face to someone else's body.  The result is pretty much as bad as the CGI they used on him in "The Mummy Returns."

The two do share some great chemistry, and work well off one another, so that's one plus the film has going for it, but ultimately it's your typical Kevin Hart movie with a special guest actor.  I can just imagine some upcoming projects:
-Kevin Hart stars with Leonardo DiCaprio as the two set sail on the open water in search of fun and adventure, as Hart plays a mild-mannered middle school principal on a cruise with his wife, and DiCaprio plays a former mobster who turned states evidence, and is now on the run from those he used to work for.
-Kevin Hart stars with Will Smith as long-lost stepbrothers, where Hart plays an insecure insurance salesman and Smith comes into his life because he wants Hart's help in finding his long lost love.
-Kevin Hart stars with Adam Sandler as two insecure middle-aged men who were both bullied in high school and must work together to overcome their insecurities as well as get revenge against those who picked on them.

As far as the script goes, it's rather simplistic.  Even when they try to throw in some twists and turns, they're not exactly...intelligent (get it?).  You see them coming miles away, and causes the film to run a lot longer than it should have.  They could've easily cut out thirty minutes and it wouldn't have been as bad.  Plus the pacing seemed very off, with awkward pauses and cuts that didn't seem to make sense.  There's some grand cameos (Jason Bateman, Aaron Paul, Melissa McCarthy), but ultimately it falls under its own generic nature and results in a humdrum tale you'll forget as soon as you leave the theater.

The Summary:
If it weren't for Dwayne Johnson's surprisingly entertaining turn to comedy, "Central Intelligence" would just be the next film in the long line of Kevin Hart-style comedies.  Actually, that's still what happened.

The Score: B