Central Intelligence

This is not the first comedic role for Dwayne Johnson, but Central Intelligence gives him his first great one.  It's a genuinely funny, and very sweet performance.  He brings to his character the same kind of bighearted vulnerability that John Candy used to have - He's goofy, lovable and kind of insecure, with a touch of sadness behind that big grin of his.  Team this up with Kevin Hart's performance here, and you have a comedy duo that consistently works.  The movie they're in is pretty good, too.

Johnson plays Bob Stone, a chiseled and intimidating agent for the CIA, but behind that gruff exterior lies a sensitive and kind of dorky guy who has a thing for unicorns, fanny packs, and John Hughes movies (Sixteen Candles, in particular).  20 years ago, in high school, Bob Stone was known as Robert Weirdicht, the shy and morbidly obese kid that everybody picked on.  When a group of bullies played a particularly cruel prank on him during the big Senior Year assembly, the only person who helped him was Calvin Joyner (Kevin Hart), the most popular kid in the class.  Calvin was the all around scholar, athlete, and reigning king of the 1996 Senior Class.  Bob has never forgotten Calvin's kindness on his most humiliating day, and decides to connect with him when their 20 year high school reunion comes around.

If Bob has managed to turn his life around since high school (losing weight, becoming a government agent who can disarm an entire room of thugs in a matter of seconds), then Calvin's life has not exactly gone as he planned.  Sure, he married his high school sweetheart, Maggie (Danielle Nicolet), but he now has a desk job as an accountant, which he hates, and has never reached the heights he seemed destined for.  The two meet for drinks on the eve of the reunion, but this is all a ruse.  It turns out Bob is being hunted down by some of his fellow agents for supposedly murdering his partner, and committing treason.  Bob, naturally, claims he is innocent and that he needs Calvin's skills as an accountant to track down the information he needs to clear his name.  But we sense that Bob isn't just hooking up with Calvin just to clear his name.  He does truly like and even idolizes Calvin, still seeing him as the all-star that he appeared to be when they were 18.

Central Intelligence could have easily gone the lazy route, and just played off the obvious height and physical differences between its two stars, much like the 1988 Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito vehicle, Twins.  But this movie manages to go the extra mile, making Bob and Calvin into characters that we genuinely like and get behind.  Bob may have turned his life around, but he's still extremely insecure and lonely at heart.  He has no friends, other than Calvin, and given that the guy may or may not possibly be a killer, Calvin's not sure if he even wants to be friends.  And when Bob looks at his reflection, he still sometimes sees the sad, overweight kid that he once was looking back at him.  When he's forced to talk to one of his former bullies, he can barely look him in the eye, let alone speak to him.  The torment he went through still hurts him.  As for Calvin, he seems to have made it with a wife, the steady job and a beautiful home, but he can't help but feel that he peaked 20 years ago.  Hart does get off with his usual motor mouth comic routine, but he's mostly playing the straight man here, letting Johnson fly with his goofy, lovable and genuinely funny performance.

It's how well these two actors play off one another, and how the movie treats them as real characters, that makes the film work.  We genuinely like these characters, and these are strong comic performances bringing them to life.  Yes, the plot is old hat, and involves a lot of misdirection and red herrings as to who is behind the whole situation, something involving a terrorist plot to sell information on the black market.  But the plot is not the focus here.  It's Bob and Calvin who carry the movie, and rightfully so.  Bob is a great comic character, and I wouldn't mind seeing Johnson bringing him back in another movie.  And Calvin allows Hart to show a slightly more subdued side than he usually does, while still pulling off some of his quick dialogue that his fans expect.  Watching the movie, we don't just get the sense that these two stars enjoy working together, we feel like they actually are friends.  It's a fantastic on screen partnership, and the filmmakers were smart to make it the sole focus of the movie.

This is not a smart comedy.  It won't catch you off guard with its witty dialogue, and it doesn't have a lot to say.  But there's just an undeniable sweetness behind it that's impossible not to like.  If anything, it could make Dwayne Johnson into a comedic star to go along with his action star status.  It would certainly be well-earned.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

0 comments