Bad Company
The success of the "Rush Hour" movies is to blame — at least in some small part — for the awful, would-be comic thriller "Bad Company."After all, few if any, successful movie trends escape the notice of uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who seems to have latched onto the mismatched cop/detective/spy concept later in the game than some of his filmmaking rivals.
And despite the presence of some talented people, the latest Bruckheimer production doesn't even come close to matching the somewhat sketchy "Rush Hour" films for thrills and laughs. In fact, it's a pretty routine thriller that employs a plot device that was also featured in a Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle.
The film also continues the downward career spiral of Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins, who looks as if he'd rather be somewhere else — anywhere else.
Hopkins co-stars as Gaylord Oakes, a veteran CIA agent who recently had a close call while on a mission in Prague. Oakes barely escaped with his life, but his partner, Kevin Pope (Chris Rock), wasn't so lucky.
That's particularly unfortunate, because Kevin was supposed to negotiate a deal — for a suitcase bomb — between Oakes and a Russian black market arms dealer (Peter Stormare) in less than two weeks.
Needless to say, Oakes is skeptical and isn't too thrilled at the prospect of bringing the fast-talker "up to speed." But time is running out, and unfortunately for Jake, the men who killed his brother are now hot on his trail.
A team of writers worked on this script, which is every bit as scattered and incomprehensible as you'd expect. Few character motivations make any sense, and it's extremely predictable. Director Joel Schumacher tones down some of his style-over-substance camera tricks, but it's still hard to tell what's happening in the majority of the action scenes.
As for the stars, Rock is at his worst here, as he tries to make up for the lame material by riffing constantly (to the point that it becomes unbearable). Meanwhile, Hopkins looks completely uninterested. And who can blame him?
"Bad Company" is rated PG-13 for action violence (fistfighting, gunplay, vehicular violence and explosive mayhem), occasional use of strong profanity (including one utterance of the so-called "R-rated" curse word), gore, use of some crude slang terms and racial epithets, a scene of torture, brief veiled female nudity and some brief sexual contact. Running time: 111 minutes.
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