BUY THE DVD:
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SYNOPSIS:
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when a harvard-educated cia agent is killed during an operation, the secret agency recruits his twin brother.
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MOVIE FACT:
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this film was originally scheduled to be released on christmas day, 2001, but was delayed because of september 11th.
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RATING:
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two out of four possible stars
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Though not nearly as horrid as some critics would have the public believe, Bad Company still contains a series of mistakes which prevent it from being much more than a lame attempt at movie making. Viewers of this film will probably feel strangely removed from the action and uncertain as to why they should care about any of the characters, whether they be good or bad. And though it's fairly simple to discern which of these characters should be rooted for, it doesn't always seem to matter. Not much is revealed, emotionally, about each of the characters and they remain a mystery even after the credits start to roll.
For example, the motivations of the bomb-selling evil guys are never really clear until the final moments of the film. And when their reasons become clear, during a tiredly recited speech by one of the nameless evil men in the film, it seems to be more of an afterthought thrown into the movie at the end than something serious. The explosions and chase scenes and even the soundtrack have been given more weight than any dramatic or character driven aspects of the story. In fact, the soundtrack might be the best part of the film. Like all Jerry Bruckheimer films, the score in Bad Company is overbearing, quite intense and overshadows much of what the characters have to say. Not that what Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock have much to say to one another.
Although their characters resemble the classic odd-couple cop buddy structure that has worked in countless other films (Lethal Weapon, Die Hard 3, 48 Hours), at their basest level, Rock and Hopkins have no chemistry together. If each of them had been cast with someone else, someone they might have had chemistry with, the film might not have suffered so much in the character department. It should have been obvious to the director that while each of these men has the talent for acting, on screen together, they don't compliment one another. And this lack of chemistry is further impacted by the disappearance of any appreciable script. The events that transpire for this film's two hour running time are more than predictable. And that two hours seems like more than two hours because nothing unexpected happens in the film.
The final plot twist isn't really even a twist, it's like a slight turn instead. As is the whole film. The action sequences are muddled and become more important than what the characters feel or say. It's certainly not a requirement for an action film to have an in-depth session of touchy feely feelings, but staying with the characters for a few moments wouldn't be out of line. This film pays no attention to the smaller details, like character and motivation, and therefore has nothing to fall back on when the stunts and bullets fail. Jerry Bruckheimer has made much better choices in the past regarding his filmic endeavors, though it's unclear whether he knew how many failings this film would have when it was finished.
This film might have started out as a good idea, which didn’t fit together well once the acting, and the special effects and the editing were smashed together. It is especially evident that the pieces of this film do not add up together when the different elements can be dissected so easily, even before the credits have started to roll. Things like the musical score and the special effects should blend into the film's other parts to create a cohesive whole. But in Bad Company each of these elements is a disparate part of the puzzle that has no interlocking pieces. None of these elements (save the score), involves that much creativity anyway, so fitting them together to create a good movie was probably more than an elephantine feat for the editor.
A series of Bad decisions probably doomed this film from the start, beginning with the casting of its two lead stars. But, in point of fact, not every decision made by the executives was a bad one in this film. Two of the supporting actors, Brooke Smith and Gabriel Macht, who each play a couple of CIA agents in league with Anthony's character, do have value in this movie. Though their roles are small, they each seem more at home in their parts than do the two stars on the front of the movie poster. Peter Stormare, who plays the evil Russian arms dealer, has a good time in his character as well. Though he's not on the screen for a few scenes, he was able to inject some humor and an interesting persona into the film. But when all a film has to its credit is a few good supporting performances and a stirring musical score, there's not much reason to see the film on the big screen.
Review by Kelsey Wyatt.
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