Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson make for well-matched comic foils, helping Central Intelligence overcome a script that coasts on their considerable chemistry. Read critic reviews
Central Intelligence
2016, Action/Comedy, 1h 47m
188 Reviews 50,000+ RatingsWhat to know
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Movie Info
Bullied as a teen for being overweight, Bob Stone (Dwayne Johnson) shows up to his high school reunion looking fit and muscular. While there, he finds Calvin Joyner (Kevin Hart), a fast-talking accountant who misses his glory days as a popular athlete. Stone is now a lethal CIA agent who needs Calvin's number skills to help him save the compromised U.S. spy satellite system. Together, the former classmates encounter shootouts, espionage and double-crosses while trying to prevent worldwide chaos.
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Rating: PG-13 (Brief Strong Language|Action/Violence|Crude and Suggestive Humor|Some Nudity)
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Genre: Action, Comedy
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Original Language: English
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Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
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Producer: Scott Stuber, Peter Principato, Paul Young, Michael Fottrell
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Writer: Ike Barinholtz, David Stassen, Rawson Marshall Thurber
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Release Date (Theaters): wide
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Box Office (Gross USA): $127.4M
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Runtime:
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Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
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Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)
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Critic Reviews for Central Intelligence
Audience Reviews for Central Intelligence
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A decent buddy comedy that's motiv is as old as the old Hope & Crosby or even Laurel & Hardy movies (and perhaps older), to wit: the "leader" (Johnson) of the pair "innocently" suggests something that leads to the "comic" (Hart) getting into more trouble than he thought and thus freaking out, and there's the comedy. The stars handle their parts competently but they've got lots of help, namely Amy Ryan, Jason Bateman, and Aaron Paul, all as red herrings in this faux spy mystery. Actually this was better than I thought it was going to be.
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Its anti-bullying message is a bit misguided and it never rises to comedic genius, but Central Intelligence makes good use of Kevin Hart, who tones down his usual heightened obnoxious behavior, and Dwayne Johnson, who is lovable but slightly forced in a role that requires him to be just a bit more uncool. It's a fun lark, with a bare-bones story. Rating: 58
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Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart star in the buddy comedy Central Intelligence. When Calvin meets up with an old high school friend he accidentally gets drawn into a covert CIA op to catch an international arms dealer. Johnson and Hart make for a good comedic duo (though Johnson does a lot of the heavy lifting). And for the most part the comedy is well-written and playful. But at times it gets a little too raunchy and overly stupid, and most of the characters are clichéd stereotypes. Yet while it's formulaic and predictable, there's some fun to be had in Central Intelligence.
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First things first, much like Ride Along, this film's surprise success will definitely get us a sequel. That's just the way things are in Hollywood. They something that makes them a lot of money, compared to its budget at least, and they want to replicate that. It doesn't usually work from a creative standpoint, Ride Along 2 was a just a bad film. And I'm not saying that if we ever do get a Central Intelligence sequel, that it'll be a bad movie, but I think we should go in with tempered expectations, because it could very well be a repeat of the first film with only very minor changes. With that said, while I only gave this 3 stars, I found this movie to be a whole lot of fun to watch. But it is one of those movies, much like Ride Along, that depends solely on the chemistry between its two leads and not necessarily a great script that was written around them. Like Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe had phenomenal chemistry in the Nice Guys, but they also had a pretty fantastic script and dialogue to go along with that. And, as if it wasn't obvious, this movie isn't The Nice Guys in terms of quality or chemistry between its leads. It was never intended to be, though. This is something that's more light, silly fun. It goes without saying, though, that The Rock and Kevin Hart do have great chemistry together. They clearly had a blast working with each other and that adds more than you think, particularly in this type of film. But, as I mentioned, it's not like they had a great script to work with. There were definitely some funny lines, for sure, but the enjoyment I got from the film was pretty much all Rock and Kevin. If nothing else, Kevin and the Rock did a great job carrying this movie, because there's no way I should have enjoyed this as much as I actually did when you take into consideration that there's no real narrative to speak of. I mean they certainly try, but it's really just there to set up Kevin and The Rock for their next gag. I will say that one of the film's other weaknesses is the fact that they rely on Kevin Hart's screaming voice way too much. I'm not saying that it can't be funny, but constantly relying on it as a crutch sort of kills the joke. I find Kevin Hart to be really likable and he's a talented comedic actor, but he doesn't need to be screaming in my ear every five minutes. Maybe that's exaggerating a bit, but that's what it felt like at some points. There's some slightly intriguing body image issues, what with Rock's character being made fun of because of his weight in high school. They literally go nowhere with this outside of, maybe, one scene where Rock, being made fun of as an adult by one of the former school bullies, looks at himself in the mirror and he says himself like the same fat kid from school. They do go somewhere with that at the end, what with Rock giving a speech about always being yourself, which came across as corny as it sounds, but it's sort of weird to see such a goofy movie tackle, however brief it was, a serious topic like body image. It, honestly, felt a little out of place all things considered. I suppose it's done to give Bob, Rock's character, some edge. It was still weird. I'm not gonna say that the Rock is an amazing actor, because he's clearly not, but he's clearly gotten to the point where he's actually a pretty damn good actor given his limitations. He'll never be able to carry a serious drama on his own, but he's super charismatic, has an imposing presence and great delivery. Kevin Hart is Kevin Hart, I find him likable and entertaining when put in there with someone he can play off of. And he definitely got that with The Rock. Like I said, they're great together and, realistically speaking, they're the only reason you should even watch this film. The scripting isn't anything special, but the movie is still quite a lot of fun to watch if you're in the right mindset. I'd definitely recommend this as a rental for sure.
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