3/10
What The Rock is Cooking Smells
25 October 2016
Central Intelligence is a studio feature film in the bromance/buddy comedy genre. It's The D Train meets The In-laws.

Kevin Hart (American History X, Kevin Hart) plays the straight man opposite Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (Scorpion King, Expendables), reprising his gentle giant role from Pain and Gain. Like much of the jokes, Central Intelligence falls flat--not that there are many to go around.

It's basically one joke repeated ad nauseam, a la Saturday Night Live. The Rock asks Kevin Hart "Are you in?" (a mad-cap adventure) to which Kevin Hart replies, "No, I am definitely not in." In a twist that outdid itself in stupidity, The Rock somehow becomes Kevin Hart and his clueless wife's marriage counselor.

Central Intelligence was very 2016 in that it dealt with the "body shaming." The Rock was bullied as a youth, yet inexplicably he is still stuck in high school nostalgically and can't wait to hit the reunion. The Rock's lines were delivered with the enthusiasm of Ferris Beuhler's teacher, with McLovin style. He was better in true crime story Snitch. Kevin Hart is better doing stand-up.

This is a good example of what the industry is buying in the comedy genre. Central Intelligence has themes of regaining lost youth with "inappropriate" behavior and finding redemption.

Central Intelligence can't hold a candle to the ultimate bullying movie: Carrie.
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