"Hands-down hilarious"
Who knew Dwayne Johnson was quite this funny? He's so hands-down hilarious in freewheeling spy comedy cum buddy movie Central Intelligence that he makes motor-mouth comedian Kevin Hart, his co-star, look like the film's straight man.
Johnson's Bob Stone is a formerly flabby victim of high-school bullying who has grown up to become a deadly CIA agent. By contrast, Hart's Calvin Joyner is the one-time school star who failed to live up to his potential and is now a staid accountant. Then, on the eve of their school reunion, Bob turns up out of the blue and cajoles Calvin into helping him expose a mysterious arms dealer.
To be honest, the story's espionage shenanigans are fairly routine, but the comic disparity between Johnson's giant physique and Hart's diminutive size gives the film a head start when it comes to milking laughs and the pair's rapport more than makes up for Dodgeball director Rawson Marshall Thurber's somewhat bland filmmaking. In the end, though, it's Johnson's genial goofiness that makes the movie such fun.
Certificate 12. Runtime 107 mins. Director Rawson Marshall Thurber
Central Intelligence is available on Digital Download and is released on Blu-ray & DVD on Monday 31 October by Universal Pictures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxEw3elSJ8M
