Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Amy Ryan, Danielle Nicolet, Jason Bateman, Aaron Paul, Ryan Hansen
Directed By: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Plot: Calvin Joyner (Hart) was voted most likely to succeed back in High School. He was the most popular kid. He had the hottest girlfriend (Nicolet). Robbie (Johnson) was a fat kid, bullied endlessly, and thrown out into a school assembly butt naked. Flash forward, and Calvin is an accountant who feels like he never has met his true potential, and Robbie is a CIA agent who dropped a ton of weight and worked out a lot. Robbie comes back into Calvin’s life, pulling him into one of his jobs.
What Works: Johnson and Hart as a duo work great together. No wonder they were put in Jumanji together. I have a feeling we’ll see a bunch of films featuring them, even if we don’t get a Central Intelligence sequel. Johnson really gets silly. The supporting cast all did a good job, except Ryan Hansen who was perhaps a bit too obnoxious. It was funny, in that silly way, and the action scenes were sufficient.
What Didn’t Work: (Spoilers) From the minute Aaron Paul is included in the film as someone who is supposedly dead, I knew he wasn’t. This film doesn’t have enough random cameos by recognizable actors to make me believe that was a cameo. So it ruins the twist at the end. If you’re going to use Aaron Paul, you need about 10 other famous people popping up throughout the film in random roles so it’s not so obvious. Even then, he’s still Aaron Paul, and people still will jump to conclusions. Also, would everyone really have been cool with Robbie being naked for that long at the end of the film? I mean, he’s naked when everyone hits the dance floor again. His dick is just hanging out there.
Final Word: If I had seen this in theatres, I still would have given the greenlight to spend the big bucks. I think the film is funny enough to stand on its own. However, now its on DVD, so it’s a definite see. It’ll be at redbox in a few weeks, and you can see it for less than 2 dollars. It’s definitely worth that.
FINAL GRADE: B+
