Directed by Joel Schumacher / Written by Jason Richmond and Michael Browning
Starring Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock
116 min. / Touchstone / Rated PG-13
Retail: $29.99 / Street: $27

Bad indeed.

In Bad Company, a CIA operative who looks suspiciously like stand-up comedian Chris Rock is killed while performing a mission in Prague (cheap to shoot there, by the way. It's the European Canada) Not wanting to ruin their mission, Gaylord (Yes Gaylord and yes, Anthony Hopkins) recruits the operative's twin brother Jake (Rock) to finish the task.

Rock and Hopkins stumble together in a plot saddled with the usual action cliches including double crosses, predictable abductions and a ticking bomb that gets defused with two seconds left on the timer. I'm not ruining anything for you, am I?

It's yet another mindless action flick from populist producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Somehow, Bad Company manages to be
even worse than some of the other dreck he's managed to
pump out into theaters. Don't get me wrong, Bruckheimer's The Rock and a few others are fun flicks, but unfortunately, Bad Company doesn't even come close to anything resembling any fun at all.

Anthony Hopkins isn't suited at all for an action oriented movie. This is most readily apparent with the far too often occurrence of stuntmen being used to serve as Mr. Hopkins. In one scene, a stuntman runs up the stairs, face obviously not that of the aging star. It's a very strange thing to see in such an otherwise slickly produced movie. Slick doesn't mean good by the way. Lorenzo Lamas is pretty slick, but we all know how I feel about him don't we?

I don't care how you cut it, Chris Rock just can't do any dramatic acting. Even in a mixed bag film like Bad Company, which is just as much comedy as drama, he's terrible. There's no two ways about it. And it's a shame too. Rock isn't lacking in talent - he's one of the top three stand-ups working right now. The problem is he's lacking in acting talent.

Bad Company is a terrible, rote and predictable film that's without a hint of humor or intelligence. A sad waste of talent.

Movie Grade: D+

This is as expressive as Rock gets.

Video: 4.5 out of 5
A very lovely looking transfer black and color levels are near perfect. It's a reference quality disc that could be used to show off your lovely Widescreen HDTV. If you have one of those, why are you reading this site? Go drive your Viper to pick up your model girlfriend, jerk.
2.35:1 Widescreen Anamophic

Audio: 4 out of 5
Very aggressive, very action oriented disc. If you're one of those people that just want to show off their system, this disc would be a good option. The DTS track is generally more imaged, and the surrounds blend together much more realistically.
English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (DTS), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)

Extras: 1 out of 5
A lousy 11 minute ass-kiss piece is the only extra on the disc. No trailers, no commentary. Nothing. A lame extra for a very lame movie. The disc is a single disc in a keepcase.

Overall: 2 out of 5
The audio and video quality are excellent. But the poor film and complete lack of meaningful extras make this only a buy or even rental for those who love mindless, unimportant action.

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