by Steve Brennan

Created on: March 22, 2009   Last Updated: March 23, 2009

Bad Company is one of those movies where you can accurately guess the content just by looking at the DVD box. With the words "HOPKINS" and "ROCK" emblazoned in big letters, it's clear this was marketed as a high-concept unification of acting talent, and we are being invited to watch the supposed interplay between the urbane, cerebral, old-school style of Anthony Hopkins, and the hip, fast-talking Chris Rock. Unfortunately Bad Company is woefully generic and predictable stuff, and Hopkins really should have known better.

Produced by the purveyor of some of the most moronic movies of the last 20 years, Jerry Bruckheimer, and directed by Joel Schumacher (he of Batman and Robin fame), this is overloaded with odd-couple cliches, stereotypical black characters, and villains so hackneyed and written to formula it's a wonder they're not stroking white cats. Rock plays Michael Turner, a cultured CIA operative in Prague about to arrange a deal to buy a nuclear bomb from Vas, a black market weapons dealer (Peter Stormare, doing his rent-a-mad-Russian turn for the umpteenth time). Hopkins, as fellow agent Gaylord Oakes (yes, really) is there to assist Rock, until they're on their way out and are attacked, seemingly by a rival gang who want the bomb for themselves. Rock sacrifices his life for Hopkins and dies, leaving the CIA with a problem: how can they complete the deal without the only agent Vas was willing to deal with? Easy, says Hopkins: we'll use his twin brother to stand in for him! Clever, eh?

But would you believe it: his twin, Jake (Rock again, in case you hadn't guessed) is a streetwise, hustlin', wisecrackin' punk, and they have 10 days to turn him into his brother before they close the deal and nail Vas. Cue much buffoonery as they show him how to drink cognac, appreciate classical music, look good in a suit, and various other Trading Places/Pretty Woman-style activities before they meet with the villainous Vas and implement their scam.

There's a head-thumpingly predictable sub-plot involving Rock's girlfriend, who ends up being kidnapped in possibly the least surprising plot twist of all time, and further shenanigans from another gang, led by a rabid and sinister anti-western terrorist - presumably Schumacher's idea of being topical.

The problem with Bad Company lies in the fact that it can't decide whether to go for all-out laughs, or straight-ahead action, and the balance is consistently uneasy, resulting in an unsatisfactory mix badly handled by all involved.

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