BAD COMPANY
Released: June 7, 2002
Direcor Joel Schumacher and producer Jerry Bruckheimer team up to create a bland buddy thriller starring Chris Rock and Anthony Hopkins. When a Harvard-educated CIA agent is killed during an operation, the secret agency recruits his twin brother (Rock), an African-American street-wise hustler with no idea what's coming for him. The CIA wants the twin to finish a project his brother was working on. But this street-wise twin has absolutely no experience, so the agency sends in an experienced agent (Hopkins) to train the twin how to act and talk like a real CIA agent. Now, Joel Schumacher has made some good movies - witness "Falling Down" with Michael Douglas and Rovert Duvall or "A Time To Kill" with Samuel L. Jackson. Then he killed the "Batman" franchise with "Batman & Robin" in 1997. He didn't redeem himself with "8MM" either and this new offering uses that same "8MM" template of unmemorable filmaking. Then bring in producer Jerry Bruckheimer who can create hits with seeming ease (and hundreds of millions of studio dollars). He also does good TV work - seen "CSI: Crime scene Investigation" with William Petersen? It's not bad at all! OK, then comes along "Bad Company", a film that barely debuted in the top 10 in early June. Chris Rock is OK and you tell Hopkins did this role for the payday alone. There ARE parts of "Bad Company" I enjoyed but they come few and far inbetween after long gaps of formula car chases and covert meetings.
Touchstone/Beuna Vista
111 Minutes