Film Review - Bad Company

Ouch! This was bad!

This had all the trappings of a fun spy-thriller/comedy. You had a funny guy (Chris Rock), and serious guy (Anthony Hopkins), together they could have made a great film.

The problem is you have Jerry Bruckheimer, the man who screwed the history out of Pearl Harbor, the man who rocketed the astrophysics out of Armageddon producing.

Rock plays Jake Hayes a down-on-his-luck man, whose identical brother Mike (Chris Rock) is a dead CIA agent. Jake gets recruited to take his place and buy a bomb for the CIA. Okay, so far so good. Rock is being a funny smart-ass, and Hopkins is being his tormentor. It all falls apart when they actually go buy the bomb.

First, could someone in Hollywood learn how computers work? Your screen can not do a retinal scan of your eye.

Second, if you are buying a nuclear bomb to remove it from the world, why do you care what the arming codes are?

Third, are you really telling me you can over-night ship a nuke by airfreight and no one is going to notice?

So you're going to set off a nuke in New York City. Let me ask you, would you bury the bomb or do an air burst? I'd do the air burst myself. Really maximize the killing, but then I'm an amateur. Bruckheimer buries his. That way the people in hell will know we're all coming.

The ending was just built way too complicated so as to pad the film to the right length. It's like a homework assignment where the teacher wants three pages, so you increase the font size.

Let's not even talk about the girl friend side story. It just distracts like a train wreck.

Don't see this movie - twice!

Dust Bag Full

Film Facts

Directed by Joel Schumacher

Released in 2002

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Reviewed by Mongo