Bad Company (2002)

You won't be disappointed!

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

There are a lot of action comedy thrillers that lack one thing or another, Bad Company delivers on all the genres it represents, there is some good action shoot em up scenes (there's not a lot of those scenes, but there's some), the thriller aspect is what keeps this motion picture fast-paced, and the comedy aspect (delivered by Chris Rock) is always at the perfect time, the comedy that he brings are mainly one-liners, but they are funny one-liners which is what is important.Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock make a watchable unlikely duo, but it isn't that much of a duo due to the rest of the cast having the same amount of screen time as Hopkins as well as being in the same scenes with Rock and Hopkins most of the time.If you're a hardcore action fan, maybe you will not like this movie due to what i mentioned earlier, if you don't mind the lack of action and prefer thrillers then you will love this flick.There are not enough movies like this out there, one of the things that makes Bad Company entertaining is the age difference between the two main leads, they bounce off of each other and keep each other on an even level with their obvious different personalities and maturity levels, buddy action comedies with main leads of the same age can only rely on the action scenes, but Bad Company has more to offer due to the thriller trait.Kerry Washington gives a natural performance playing the girlfriend of Chris Rock's character, her supporting role is extremely relevant to the story especially much later on in the movie.The main plot is a bit out there and over the top, but there's a scenario that also presents the reality of everyday couples who don't have a lot of money. There is no twist in this movie, but it lives up to it's genre so much that you don't even notice that there isn't actually a plot-twist.The only thing that wasn't right was the very small amount of money that Chris Rock's character gave to his foster mother at the end of the film, he got $90,000, and only gave her $10,000, his excuse was that the $90,000 was for him and the girlfriend's wedding, i'm sorry but a wedding doesn't cost that much money, the foster mother raised him, fed him, supported him, and had faith in him and he only gives her a measly $10,000? it isn't right, even though the foster mother said "it's much more than i need", that isn't the point, and on top of that Chris Rock's character actually joked that she should give some of the money back.Roger Ebert said in his review that the scenes where they were wine tasting was unnecessary, the thing is those scenes were NOT unnecessary, they have to prepare for anything and there could easily be a situation where the bad guys want to meet Rock's character in a public place like a posh restaurant.Overall, Bad Company is a must-watch.

Kevin Pope (Chris Rock) was an undercover CIA agent who sacrifice himself for his fellow spy Gaylord Oakes (Anthony Hopkins). In order to maintain the cover identity Michael Turner, Oakes has to recruit Kevin's twin Jake Hayes to pretend to be his brother. Jake is a street smart hustler and very different from his brother. Jake doesn't even know he had a brother and they only have 9 days to negotiate a nuclear weapon deal with villain Adrik Vas (Peter Stormare). There is a terrorist group competing for Vas' nuke and trying to kill him. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Julie (Kerry Washington) is leaving him for Seattle.My one big problem is that this is not funny. It's either a waste of Chris Rock or a miscast for this character. Joel Schumacher just doesn't know how to make funny jokes and Rock can't do it by himself. The movie is better off getting a tough guy to play this seriously. It's an almost functional spy thriller with some passable action. Hopkins and Rock have no chemistry at all. Sometimes the movie has good moments but overall it is not really that good.

I didn't get if this movie is suppose to be a spy thriller or a comedy cause it did a terrible job of mixing both. The plot and direction is stupid, especially when it comes to the dialogue. The movie would have worked if it was spontaneous and cool but that isn't the case. The scenes that aren't suppose to be funny is way more funny than the actual scenes that is suppose to be funny. This movie just proved that Chris Rock should never play a serious character although it's short. When it comes to that part of the movie. This movie is just all over the place and isn't put together in a coherent way. The only funny part in this movie is seeing Chris Rock act like a serious character in the beginning. After that he is just plain annoying must of the way through with constant annoying remarks. There is a line that the villain of this movie says at the end that stands out, especially when this movie came out. But it just feels out of place with the rest of the movie which is unfortunate. The idea for this flick might have worked but the execution was just so darn corny and absurd in a negative way. And is mostly just poorly executed with almost no intelligence and wits. The chemistry between the 2 protagonists is alright but didn't go more in depth with it. It's just a easily forgettable movie that isn't worth a second viewing at all. This one probably tried to be another "Enemy of the State" but failed.3.9/10

Officer Seale (Gabriel Macht) is handsome, brave, intelligent, an ace biker, skilled in gun duels and at dodging bullets, and can even survive being shot in the back at close range. He's great! Unfortunately, he's not the focus of the film. That is shared by street-wise scalp Jake (an irritating Chris Rock who is followed everywhere by blaring rap music) who has to pretend to be his undercover CIA agent brother and dull (not to mention elderly and overweight) Officer Oakes (an unconvincing Anthony Hopkins sleeping through his lines) who has to train Jake to save the world from a nuclear bomb.Bad Company starts with a clichéd poetic action scene in which Kevin Pope is killed. Enter exposition overload to explain who Jake is and why he has to cover for Kevin. This gets all the information across in a short space, but is so obvious and clumsy, only a child wouldn't be irritated. However, the plot itself is pleasingly straight-forward and sense-making, which isn't often the case in action films, but it does all rest on how lucky the CIA are that Jake is basically a receptive genius. But it can't be that hard for Jake to pretend to be Kevin, since Rock's Kevin acting involves using a quiet monotone and nothing else. This touches on a vague plot hole of the film, in that why does the CIA bother training Jake to act like Kevin, and then training him to act like Kevin acting like Michael Turner (Kevin's alias)? Why not go straight from Jake to Michael, especially since they are not supposed to give Jake any extraneous information that could pop out at the wrong time? Other plot holes include why in the lengthy car chase in which baddies want the bomb that Jake and Oakes have, do they not kill Jake and Oakes when they get the bomb, and undercover agents like Oakes probably shouldn't run around as CIA officers in the middle of undercover operations. Also, there is something extremely tacky about the style in which the diffusing the bomb scene is edited, with lots of random close ups.All that aside, this is an inoffensive action film, fine for passing the time, although thanks to the two flat leads, probably not one to seek out.