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Bad Company
It's not. Talented as these men are, they need a script. As films without scripts go, this one isn't so awful. There are some brief moments that are okay. But what a huge waste of talent; what a fabulous opportunity lost. Chris Rock is a street smart guy living in Jersey. His twin brother is a spy working for the CIA. The brother is killed in the middle of a hugely critical mission. The CIA decide to use Chris Rock in place of the brother. Anothony Hopkins, another spy, must train and work with the reluctant Rock. Yada yada yada ... and so on. It's a movie that lamely reworks the Midnight Run buddy movie as action thriller idea. (In fact, in the featurette on the DVD it's interesting that no one can seem to figure out what kind of movie this is. They all rhyme off about a half dozen film genre types as they try to figure out what the film might be.)
But it has to have some creative inspiration within it to give it life and the movie is utterly lacking in it. Instead, we get a series of obligatory Jerry Bruckheimer action scenes almost all of which leave you anxious for them to end and get back to Hopkins and Rock. The film should have recognized that these two were its gold. The film only shows life when they are together. But they have precious little to work with. It also doesn't play to their talents, especially in the case of Rock. He really doesn't have the acting chops yet to do a character such as his brother is supposed to be, which is very restrained, proper and minimal. He does, however, have the talent to be serious within the boundaries of a contemporary, street smart African-American. Unfortunately, in most cases when he is playing this he is expected to be funny so we don't get to see much emotional range here. But there are glimpses of what he could do and it's sad no one took advantage of it.
Taken as a whole, this film is very flimsy. It disappoints as an action thriller because everything is strictly cookie cutter. As a comedy, it falls flat because the material is so thin. But the really disappointing thing about the movie is what might have been with such a great pairing idea as Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock. © 2002 Piddleville Inc. |
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Other Views
Inside the Movie Room |
Someone
had a great idea when they decided to pair 
Working
with a formula doesn't have to be a bad thing, especially when you have
such an intriguing pairing as Hopkins and Rock. 
With
Hopkins, there is yet another waste of talent and a failure to recognize
what the actor could bring to the movie. Hopkins' dry wit can be absolutely
wicked, yet this is seldom if ever used. One of the elements of the Hannibal
character Hopkins plays in the Hannibal movies (like