If you’re asking, the answer is yeah! Chris Rock, Anthony Hopkins, you say to yourself, “That’s a strange pair.” Sure it’s been done before, think Eddie Murphy with Nick Nolte (the bud says think Murphy with Dan Ackroyd), but Bad Company does it good. Sure the basic plot is hokey and sometimes predictable but what did you expect?
For my $9, the key here is the script by Jason Richman and Michael Browning. Neither has written anything of substance that’s been produced before (6 Days, 7 Nights doesn’t count for shit in my book) and to hit one out of the ballpark like this is rather surprising. There were lots of little things, mainly in the script, that give me this feeling, extra bits that one doesn’t expect in a big bang summer action movie. Props to director Joel Schumacher too (Falling Down with Michael Douglas, the Clooney/O’Donnell Batman & Robin) for getting the goods from Hopkins and Rock, the car chase though high grass, allowing Rock to come up with his own material where appropriate (such as when he tells off CIA honcho played by John Slattery for talking down to him); would you ever have guessed that Schumacher started his Hollywood career as a costume designer?
Some knockout eye candy too: Garcelle Beauvais (NYPD Blue) shows us her extremely fine body in shower and lingerie scenes, even if the scenes don’t do much to move the plot along. Okay, they do give context for another attempt on Rock’s life, another chance for Hopkin’s and team to shoot off their guns. Much of the movie is set in and around Prague and we get some beautiful visuals from the historic buildings, cityscape, and countryside too.
There are lots of laughs, lots of action, lots of technology to back up the actors–this is a Jerry Bruckheimer film (Blackhawk Down and Pearl Harbor, to give you some idea). The movie cost a lot of money to produce, though not nearly as much as Pearl Harbor, which is good because it isn’t doing too well at the box office, but you do see it on screen.
Recommended for action fans
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