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| Bad Company |
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  (3/10)
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Runtime: 117 |
| Public Rating: 6.55 (11 votes) |
Director: Joel Schumacher |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Action/ Comedy |
Year: 2002 |
| Writer(s): Jason Richman and Michael Browning |
| Distributor: 1 |
| Reviewed by: Movieman |
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I have to admit, Jerry Bruckheimer and Touchstone Pictures have guts. Not only do they put in the word "bad" in the title of their multi-million dollar movie, they also had the courage to use the word "disastrous" in the last line in the trailer. Guts. Pure guts.
Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock star in this techno-thriller/ buddy cop/ action-comedy movie. Hopkins plays Officer Oakes, a veteran in the CIA who is working on a deal with Russian dealers to buy a suitcase nuclear devise. Helping with the deal is Kevin Pope who is assassinated leaving the CIA in a pickle. But lucky for them, he has an unknown twin brother! Jake Hayes is a Jersey native who works days scalping basketball tickets and make money by playing a quick game of chess, by night he DJ's at clubs. He has the easy life until his girlfriend of three years finds a job in Seattle and is going to leave him. The all-knowing CIA throws some money at him, trains him for 9 days and gets him ready to deal with the Russians.
This is the second weekend in a row dealing with a terrorist who brings a nuclear weapon to punish evil Westerners, the other flick being The Sum of All Fears. While I did not like Fears, it certainly now looks like a top-notch summer flick compared to this dribble.
Anthony Hopkins seems lost in this film. He utters some quirky lines, runs a bit and shoots people but I never bought him in the role or even know anything about him for me to care about. Hopkins is a talented actor but he added a blemish to his filmography that includes The Silence of the Lambs, The Remains of the Day and even taking on the role of Zorro in The Mask of Zorro. I have seen better work from him than this, but I realize why he did it: m o n e y- $20 million, that is. I don't really blame him and I see why he asked for so much.
Chris Rock, on the other hand, I still can't figure out. Maybe he thought this could be a franchise like Lethal Weapon or maybe he also was given a truckload of dough. Either way he is a hot commodity and could have any role he wanted (that fits his profile). He is, however, the best thing in this piece of crap. He has the best lines and does a good job considering he was given no character and with one good line, there were 30 others that stank.
The supporting cast, as it were, is non-existent. They are stitched together like their characters and have no purpose other than to shoot their guns and lead on Hopkins and Rock. Stormare, the only name supporting cast member, does the typical job playing the Russian arms dealer. He, like Hopkins and Rock, has done better work and should've stayed away from this turkey.
The bulk of the blame should be placed on writers Gary Goodman (debut), David Himmelstein (Village of the Damned), Jason Richman (debut), and Michael Browning (Six Days Seven Nights). When you look at how much little experience they have combined, you can see why the characters are bland, the plot is stupid and the lines are idiotic.
After watching the film I could not say whether there was any hope, so the question is: why did they make it in the first place? The answer: Jerry Bruckheimer said so. This is a man well known for the preposterous and over-budgeted action flicks Armageddon and Gone in 60 Seconds. His movies are there to numb the mind; hoping people will think it is just a popcorn movie.
One also has to consider beyond Bruckheimer's poor sense of quality, the plot did not fit the genre. Director Schumacher, the screenwriters and the producers were trying to duplicate the success of "buddy-cop" movies from the 80s but it just doesn't work well when placed into the terrorism genre that we are all too familiar with. Don't get me wrong, I didn't take any offense to the comic action dealing with the serious subject matter, it just mixed together like oil and water.
Lastly one cannot forget to mention Joel Schumacher. This is a director on the rise but fell hard since Batman & Robin. After the embarrassment of that film, he followed it up with 8MM starring Nicolas Cage (along with a feud with Andrew Kevin Walker over the screenplay) and Flawless Robert De Niro. I would think Schumacher would be considered a virus to big budget flicks and Bad Company only proves it even more.
Overall Bad Company has bad acting, bad writing and a bad plot. One good thing? It is aptly named. Have to give them points for that, right?
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