Central Intelligence

This review may contain spoilers!

It's a fairly generic action-comedy propelled by great chemistry from it's two leading stars. I would give Central Intelligence a 6.5/10.

This film stands strongly upon it's comedy, there are a lot of great cracks in this film and some great back and forth banter. From a plot perspective this film had two great elements; firstly the treatment of Bob being bullied and then him ultimately standing up to his bully was very well done, I also enjoyed the mystery surrounding the identity of the 'Black Badger' at the end of the film even if the final reveal wasn't as surprising as I would have liked. The cinematography looks really good for a comedy film, there a some really nicely framed shots scattered throughout the feature. The soundtrack for this film is fantastic, it provides comedy but it also keeps you excited and engaged.

Dwayne Johnson, who played Bob Stone, is clearly having a tremendous amount of fun in this film; his completely ridiculous hero-worshipping character makes for a lot of fun. Kevin Hart, who played Calvin Joyner, is extremely good at playing very funny and grounded characters; Hart will often be the performer to lead and direct the comedy in this film and he does a great job of it. Ryan Hansen, who played Steve, is very fast and loose with some brilliant one liners in this film; Hansen has probably some of the best line delivery in the film. Kumail Nanjiani, who played Jared the Airport Security Guard, made for a hilarious minor appearance in this film; the scene between Nanjiani and Hart was one of the funniest in the film. Phil Reeves, who played Principal Kent, really introduced the comedic tone of the film; his opening speech and following banter with Hart opened the film extremely well. Melissa McCarthy, who played Darla, had a very funny cameo at the end of this film; McCarthy once again establishes why she is one of the most demanded comedic actresses by performing in just a few minutes of the film.

However the best performance came from Jason Bateman, who played Trevor. Bateman is one of my favourite comedic performers and this film he just keeps it coming. Bateman has one main scene in this film (as well as a small reappearance near the end) in which we see him as a minor antagonist to Johnson's Bob. Bateman delivers a very nasty and kind of cruel character who shows how disgusting bullying someone is. At the same time Bateman manages to keep the scene funny, throwing out a few good quips and keeping the audience entertained.

The comedy in this film doesn't always land and sometimes you feel like the pacing stretches on a bit too long, it's like they couldn't think of enough material to keep the comedic tone going throughout. Sadly the CIA aspect of this film is absolutely boring, you don't really care about Johnson's mission throughout the course of the film and it doesn't help that the one key thing Johnson needs are "super sweet accounting skills". The editing for this film didn't help the pacing much, the cuts were slow and sometimes poorly pieced together. The fight sequences were a bit standard, clearly the choreography there didn't do anything to stand out from the crowd.

Amy Ryan, who played Agent Pamela Harris, gave an exceptionally bland performance in this film; she made the CIA aspect of the plot a bit of a let down. Danielle Nicolet, who played Maggie, didn't really have a lot of chemistry with Hart in this film; you didn't really care for their marital troubles and it became a subplot you dismissed rather rapidly. Aaron Paul, who played Phil, made for a rather disappointing antagonist; his big reveal of being alive was obvious and his motivations for being the bad guy were flimsy at best. Tim Griffin and Timothy John Smith, who played Agent Stan Mitchell and Agent Nick Cooper respectively, presented a pair of very stereotypical secret agents; they didn't need anywhere near the amount of screen time they got and may as well be labelled overpaid extras. Thomas Kretschmann, who played The Buyer, was yet another boring simple antagonist; he was neither threatening nor did he make much of an impact upon the story as a whole.