Review of Bad Company (2002) by Rose — 13 May 2008

Bad Company is one of those innocuous action movies that is a slave to plot, but isn't actually about anything. The basic gamble of Chris Rock's hustler assuming his dead long lost brother's secret identity is oddly low on comedy, thanks partly to Rock's own Marmite comedy skills and to Anthony Hopkins' paycheque-inspired performance.

Other characters get little dialogue and littler personalities, and without any impressive setpieces to speak of - not including a few chases that hinge on an elderly Hopkins being a credible action hero - there's little to recommend even by the low standards of the genre.

Rock has barely enough charisma for one character, let alone twins, and Hopkins' straightman is too dull for words. Harmless, generic, unremarkable everyman-gets-to-be-spy fare, with more contrivances than belly laughs.

(Like, why train Jake to be his brother Kevin if he's got to be Kevin undercover as someone else? Why not just train him to be this Michael bloke? What's the point of the sequence where he runs away and eventually comes back? And oh, great, the villain kidnaps his girlfriend for the finale.

..).