Trading places Central to success
A rare action comedy that delivers both hilarity and heart-in-mouth moments, this genre-hopping tale’s solidity is down to its central pairing.
Separated by a foot and 100 pounds, director Rawson Marshall Thurber’s (Dodgeball, We’re the Millers) tale finds a ‘‘little (Kevin) Hart and a big (Dwayne) Johnson (as the film’s tagline puts it)’’ in inspired form as they essentially trade places.
Playing the straight man, Hart (Ride Along, The Wedding Ringer) is Calvin ‘‘Golden Jet’’ Joyner. Voted student president and most likely to succeed at his Maryland High School, the now jaded Joyner is a forensic accountant who finds himself being passed over for promotion. Such is the disappointment with his life that he’ll do anything to avoid attending his 20-year high school reunion. However, as the days tick down to that event, he’s unexpectedly contacted by the one classmate who will never lose faith in him. Robbie Weirdicht (Johnson) was the victim of a horrific prank that left him exposed in front of the whole school. Only Calvin came to his rescue. Now known as Bob Stone, the once schlubby Robbie is now a muscle-packed beefcake who likes ‘‘unicorns, guns and cinnamon pancakes’’.
But Bob’s appearance isn’t a coincidence or a social call, he needs Calvin’s ‘‘special set of skills’’ to help him unlock some files – files that put them both in the cross-hairs of the authorities, who Bob claims to work for, and the dreaded ‘‘Black Badger’’.
Providing a terrific platform for former WWE wrestler Johnson (Hercules, The Scorpion King )to showcase his comedic timing and 1000-watt smile, Central Intelligence also plays on both his action abilities (in one terrific office-set sequence he uses a coffee pot, toner cartridge and banana as weapons) and nice-guy persona (by keeping the audience guessing as to who exactly he’s double-crossing until the very end).
Director Marshall Thurber, working in conjunction with The Mindy Project writers Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen, wisely lets his leads run riot, while also managing to shoehorn in a timely anti-bullying message (at least it makes a change from the usual ‘‘you’re working too hard’’ ethos of so many Hollywood family comedies) and plenty of references to movies past – from Roadhouse to Goodfellas and Sixteen Candles.