Bad Company Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)June 6th, 2002
BAD COMPANY
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Just as CIA agents Oakes (Anthony Hopkins) and Pope (Chris Rock, "Nurse Betty") are on the verge of nabbing nuclear arms black marketer Adrik Vas (Peter Stormare, "Chocolat"), rival bidders kill Pope. The CIA uncover Pope's twin brother Jake Hayes (Rock), a Brooklyn ticket scalper and chess hustler about to lose girlfriend Julie (Kerry Washington, "Our Song") because of his lack of ambition. With only 8 days to be trained to masquerade as his unknown, sophisticated brother, Jake finds himself in "Bad Company."
While there's something intrinsically funny about Sir Anthony Hopkins saying 'Get in the car, bitch,' this Jerry Bruckheimer ("Armageddon") production has little else to offer. Not only is "Bad Company" the latest 9/11 delayed film to fail, it has the 'distinction' of featuring action involving a live nuclear
device mere blocks from the then-present World Trade Center. Furthermore, while romantically pairing Lecter with Clarice in "Hannibal" made sense, putting him together here with the Senator's daughter (Brooke Smith, "The Silence of the Lambs") is a serious distraction.
After the standard training montage, which over milks Jake's late rising habits
for laughs, the ghetto lad is poured into a thousand dollar suit with Manhattan digs to match. 'I think I'm gonna like being Mike Turner (Pope's cover as an antiques dealer),' he says, changing his brother's classical station over to loud rap.
Unlike the professional CIA chief of "The Sum of All Fears," here Oakes is up against Yates (John Slattery, "Traffic"), a miscalculating weasel who immediately puts the unsuspecting Jake in harms way. After extensive coaxing, including an appeal to his humanity, Oakes gets Jake back on board and they travel to a luxury hotel in Prague. 'I think I'm gonna like being Mike Turner," says Jake, this time surrounded by female manicurists.
After an unfunny comedic segment where Jake gets a surprise visit from his late brother's sexy CNN reporter girlfriend Nicole (Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, "Double Take"), Oakes and Jake bond while a double cross becomes a triple cross that lands Jake's girlfriend Julie in the hands of Jugoslavian terrorists while a nuke counts down in Grand Central Station.
Jason Richman and Michael Browning's script is defined by its hoary 'twins separated at birth' conceit. This is the type of film where all secret ops are carried out at tourist attractions and five star hotels are shot up by automatic weapons unbeknownst to its staff and the local police. Rock is given a couple of funny bits, both involving outsmarting the CIA, but when he's put up against the real bad guys, he's forced to stall for time blathering about Dr. Dre and Wu Tang Clan as part of his expertise on nuclear weaponry.
Anthony Hopkins manages to maintain his humor and dignity throughout. Gabriel Macht, notable in the horrible "American Outlaws," and Brooke Smith, recently fine in "Series 7: the Contenders," are both humorless cardboard cutouts as Oakes' teammates. Stormare chews scenery while Matthew Marsh ("Spy Game") provides a more stock villain as Dragan Adjanic.
Joel Schumacher's directs in his soulless "Batman and Robin" mode, making his film "Bad Company" indeed.
D+
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