MOVIE REVIEW – Ah „The Rock”, the actor who now and then decides to do a movie besides The Fast and Furious franchise it’s usually fun, wacky comedy movie. While we had such efforts as The Tooth Fairy, or Doom in Central Intelligence we get a much shier version of the good old wrestler.This time, The Rock goes on an espionage mission with Kevin Hart to save the world from The Rock?

In Central Intelligence, we are shown the early lives of Bob Stone (The Rock) and Calvin Joyner (Kevin Hart). Both of them are at different points near the end of High School. Calvin is a superstar, an incredible athlete and smart with a love of his life. Meanwhile, the Rock is… well, a poorly CGI-d fat kid who has no friends and is a total loser.

As a final moment, we see Bob getting humiliated in front of the entire school. Twenty years pass and the roles are reversed. Calvin is now living a mediocre life of an accountant, while The Rock „lost weight”, and became proficient in the art of spying. However one thing The Rock did not lose, which was his awkward personality from the teen years. Armed with his fanny pack, and gun, he leaps into action with Calvin.

Screaming Hart and Weird Dwayne

Kevin Hart was unbearable in this movie, annoying, and pretty much would have loved anyone else to play his role. His only role was to shriek in the film and look like a dumb idiot. Unfortunately, his acting chops are not that great. He tries to do his best; he does, but it is just not enough for even this movie. He has one volume level, and that talks as loud as he can to sound funny.

Dwayne Johnson however in this movie was weird. The first scenes with him were unfunny and too forced. The CGI „Rock” on a fat kid was cringe worthy and just dreadful. However after that small annoying few minutes later, his acting got way better, and a bit creepy at parts. The implication of The Rock being a deadly CIA agent is not too far fetched and is a role that suits him.

Here I cannot believe in the real world being qualified to be a CIA agent. He’s so childlike and kid faced smiley throughout the movie that because of the nature of the plot I was not able to figure out whether The Rock is A) or B). Only the near end of the movie provided clarify, and even guessing what would happen in the end proved me wrong.

The plot is bare bones and quite simple, but because of The Rock’s acting, and the way the scenes are played out it become quite exciting.

Also, Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad is in it, so it’s always nice to see him get any acting job after that series.

Grounded action

Central Intelligence is not a flashy movie; it does not rely on heavy CGI (besides that one part), special effects, or even high-octane action scenes. The trailers sort of spoil the good action scenes so I would advise skipping the trailers. Otherwise, you’ll have to stay for the banter, and that is hit and miss. Kevin Hart does not add too much, but The Rock has great timing and jokes for most of the movie. The jokes are okay, and the shootout, fight scenes are average.

It plays it safe throughout the film which I was disappointed a bit. Plus eighteen CIA agents vs. Rock was getting a bit tired for the third time in the film. The music and the visuals of the movie are entirely forgettable, which in this case is not much of a problem, since as mentioned above, the movie is more about banter than actual epic fight scenes. Though some pleasant and memorable music would have been nice. The final fight scene though is just „throat ripping”-ly awesome (bit gruesome for some kids though probably).

Fun for the family

If you hate Kevin Hart, you’ll have a hard time enjoying the movie (Try to focus on The Rock only then). However, the banter and some of the action scenes make this an okay comedy movie. I was expecting worse, and to not enjoy it, but in the end, it turned into a fun movie.

-Dante-