Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
This is the second time in recent weeks that our new spy has reported in on something he’s seen in advance. Sounds like I may have to take a trip to Jakarta and wander the streets m’self at this rate...
Just wandering round the back-streets of Jakarta when discovered “Bad Company”, Sir Anthony and Chris Rock, courtesy of Joel Schumacher, all who seek to reinvent themselves (shall not succeed).
It was a decent copy, I might add. Looks like it came of a BV VHS. “Property of Buena Vista. Do not copy or reuse for sale or some shit like that. I wonder how Disney would like that
So, here’s the story. Chris Rock in a dual role is Kevin Pope, a CIA agent who is killed while engineering a weapons deal off the black market. With nine days to complete the deal, Pope’s partner Anthony Hopkins (Gayloard Oakes; no jokes on that, I’m afraid) has to train Pope’s long lost bro, Jake to take his place and complete the deal. What follows are training scenes leading to a double orgasmic climax.
The Comments
The first scenes in Prague show no sense of co-ordination and are pretentious in their phony Europeanisms. Also, it’s kind of hard getting used to Chris Rock trying to tone his mouth down (although I loved it in Dogma). But, Peter Stormare actually works here for once and adds a pleasantly Mephistophelean touch. You can tell I like villains and this is one is so underdeveloped and criminally underused.
As is Trevor Rabin’s consistently good score. Someone, get out there and hire the man (Bruckheimer, I thank you).
The opening scenes are too fast however, and the audience is left to fend for themselves in the ten minutes after this before they figure out the plot.
Rock is more at home with Jake and his scenes are consistently entertaining without being vulgar. And even if the love scenes are obligatory and look as such, the one liners sprinkled throughout the movie would give those of Hollywood Ending’s a run for their money.
Most of the problems with Bad Company are related with it’s tone. Rock has it. Hopkins has it too. But it’s different and Schumacher is confused. Add the Bruckheimerizms and what do you get? Is this a buddy cop movie via Rush Hour? About the halfway mark, the film gets very comfortable with the action scenes and it sort of works.
The training scenes: Jakes transformation to CIA- are nicely done. Sort of like Pigmallion meets Armageddon. However, Jakes total change in 9 days goes too quickly and is hardly believable.
The chase scenes, however, were terrible and discombobulatingly awful. There is no sense of coherence and too many quick edits and jerky cameras are used.
And then the movie goes to Prague and plays to Rock’s strengths with it’s spoofy humor. But being another shift in tone, this does not work. The movie suffers from a split personality.
There are some memorable moments; Anthony Hopkins wringing this guys neck and some absolutely lovely field shots (dazzling camerawork btw in these scenes). I can smell the green.
Some nice scenes with tension and flow.
But the biggest mistake the film makes is surrendering the plot. I’m not an arty farty guy that dismisses Hollywood and elopes to Cannes. I believe certain movies can be done well and should be done better. And this movie, by leaving the story in arbitrarily in the hands of his characters, sacrifices a decent plot and that is when the story collapses although we do enjoy the interplay between the characters.
This film is probably just an excuse for Schumacher. Let’s hope it makes tons of quid so he can continue his artistic forays into new territory. (ie. tigerland)
The only person coming out of the film better is Chris Rock. He succeeds in doing something slightly different from his usual persona. Not revolutionary but different.
While I enjoyed ‘Bad Company’, I do consider it to be a waste of time, as all movies of such conventional caliber are.
Grade: D-
