Review: Bad Company
Bad Company is one of those movies that pleases everyone that sees it, the problem is there are too few to make a real difference in the movie’s box office gross. Bad Company is also one of those movies that was directly affected by the happens of September 11th. The movie was delayed from it’s original release date last fall when it could have made a bigger splash in the box office.
With that said, Bad Company is not a bad movie, in fact, I really enjoyed the two hours in the theatre watching Chris Rock be funny, Anthony Hopkins deliver his deadpan style of acting, and see the problems they managed to escape especially the car chase scene towards the end, although rather cliché, it was still a great ride.
The plot of Bad Company is as basic as it comes, but it seems to work better than some other movies that have tried it. The story centers on Rock’s character of Michael Turner, who is actually Kevin Pope one of two twins separated at birth after the mother died of complications. Pope works for the CIA and has been deep undercover for two years plotting out the sale of a stolen nuclear device. Just when it seems the deal is going to go through, Pope is assassinated by the rival bidder who aims to use the bomb in a major United States’ city. This is where Rock’s other character comes in. Jacob Hayes is the other twin who works as a poor street hustler and makes money off of playing chess and selling tickets. In order for the deal to go down, the CIA needs Hayes, but it will come at a price.
The screen-time between Hopkins’ character Oakes and Rock’s Hayes is the best part of the movie. They seem very charismatic together and able to pull of the buddy-buddy relationship that it seemingly streamed along for most of the movie. Even Rock by himself he gets the job done by bringing in the classic humor that has made him a star today since his beginnings on Saturday Night Live over ten years ago. Hopkins, while getting up there in age, works well in the part of an up-tight CIA agent with no personal ties to the world.
Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, I didn’t expect much after what Pearl Harbor turned out to be, but I kept faith even after the three hour fiasco of love in the Pacific. What really got me worried was seeing Joel “I love Batman” Schumacher’s name attached to anything resembling a movie. I mean, the guy totally messed up the Batman franchise for life, and in turn has killed the Black Knight. I am proud to say that it wasn’t as bad as I thought from a directing stand point. There are a few very stylistic shots that I really enjoyed, one where Hopkins is hanging out of the moving car going across the grassy knoll.
In the end, Bad Company didn’t turn out as bad as I thought it would, you can check out my pre-summer predictions right here to see what I thought it would be like. While it wasn’t quite as bad for the audience, Disney may not be too happy with the rather dismal $10.5 million and fourth place opening in it’s first weekend. Although I said it would happen…
