“Central Intelligence” is an action comedy that gets by on the great chemistry between leading actors and hopefully new comedy duo Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. The movie itself is kind of rote, as most of the action is very generic and not presented particularly well, and the plot used to justify this comedy team up seems very much like an afterthought, as there is a bunch of nonsense about “satellite codes” and some not-so-secret secret auction and some shadowy figure called “the Black Badger” that everyone chases and it really it just feels exactly like the kind of generic spy plot used in these type of action comedies (see: “Spy” and “The Brothers Grimsby” and so on). So as the story has nothing to offer and the action is mostly “meh,” then what does “Central Intelligence” have to offer?

Well first and foremost, Dwayne Johnson is definitely working his ass off in this movie as Bob Stone, a possibly disgraced CIA Agent (super agent really) who is insanely competent in terms of being a spy and is painfully socially stunted thanks to a childhood that consisted mostly of being bullied and an adulthood that consisted mostly of lifting weights and learning how to kill people for the government. When he meets up with the only person in high school who was ever nice to him, his wide eyed enthusiasm and overly sincere accolades are both funny and a little off putting because it is obvious this guy has a screw or two loose, apparently jarred loose by a traumatic childhood that he has never gotten over. This coupled with his abilities as a spy make him a very unpredictable person, and hence, an interesting and fun character to follow. He has real emotional hang ups to get over, all the while trying to do this silly thing with the satellite codes and whatever other hooey they made up to get this plot in motion.Continue Reading …