CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber
Screenplay by Rawson Marshall Thurber; Ike Barinholtz; and David Stasson
Starring Dwayne Johnson; Kevin Hart; and Amy Ryan
After meeting up with an old school mate Bob Stone (Johnson); Calvin Joyner (Hart) is lured into a international issue.
When I first saw the trailer I thought right away that this film will be the same as Hart's Ride Along films, however here Johnson will just replace Ice Cube. I was wrong. This film shows how funny Dwayne Johnson can be. Ice Cube was not funny in Ride Along 1 and 2. He was the straight-man for Hart. Here Johnson gets as many laughs as Hart. His character is plain odd. He is always positive no matter what the danger and oddly always pleasant. He plays against his type, I mean he wears unicorn shirts because he loves them. In fact part of the story line is that Calvin has to decide if Bob Stone is just an overly nice guy or psychotic. I will stop there, no spoilers.
Now, I do not want to go into all the funny moments, again no spoilers here, however I can tell you during my screening the crowd seemed to be constantly laughing. Also I have to mention one of the biggest shockers in this film is a big cameo at the end for about a minute. When this person turned people actually started laughing and clapping. How they kept this a secret through all the press junkets is impressive. Did I mention No Spoilers??!! And if you see it...do not spoil it for others.
Problems?
Oh yes there was.
The story line make no sense. I mean no sense. I understand it is about the comedy team here but...it seemed like as things developed they just gave up on the story. They had no idea how to close the whole CIA story line. Yes the chase and the mystery was fun, and funny, but as we just saw in the buddy investigation comedy The Nice Guys, it helps to have a plot that comes together and makes sense. Also, I would put money down that this film has the most gun shot misses than any film this year and maybe last year. They must have hired storm troopers.
Another problem, and it kills me to say, is the incredible actress Amy Ryan. Ryan plays lead investigator of the CIA, and is miscast. I never thought I would ever type Amy Ryan is miscast but it is true. I did not believe her in this part for a second and that is a huuuuuge problem because she is who they are trying to run from or avoid.
With all that being noted ...I understand why people go to see this film. For comedy.....and it clearly delivers. For action....yes plenty of action. Chemistry between the two leads...it has that. So it deserves 3 1/2 stars out of 5. It delivers what you want. I always say I am not a snotty reviewer, just telling you if you should spend your hard earned money at the theatre on films I review. This just has a loose story line.
A quick note....it also has a nice umbrella of a story that pulls the film together about bullying and the recovery of who is bullied.
From the shadows as always thanks for your time.
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