REVIEW: ‘The Rock’ shines in otherwise meh Central Intelligence

It’s a bit of a shame that Dwayne Johnson, the actor formerly known as “The Rock, is so good at kicking butt and looking tough in action movies. Because the guy has a gift for comedy. The latest evidence of this is “Central Intelligence”, a routine buddy movie co-starring Kevin Hart that Johnson almost single-handedly make this movie worth seeing.

The story: Calvin Joyner (Hart) is stuck in life, stuck in his job, and his marriage to Maggie (the stunning Danielle Nicolet) is starting to suffer. That all changes when he’s contacted by Bob Stone (Johnson), an acquaintance from high school Calvin hasn’t seen in twenty years. Before he has time to think, Calvin finds himself swept up into a involving the C.I.A., spy satellite codes and an online auction.

Bob, who’s morphed from a fat, gelatinous blob into a chiseled monolith of muscle and butt-kicking, is an agent on the run trying to save the free world. Or is he? Can Calvin foil the plot and survive long enough to save his marriage? You have to watch to find out.

“Central Intelligence” is not a great movie. The plot iss messy and cliched. Every character in the movie not play by Hart or Johnson is a one-dimensional cardboard cutout. And while it’s nice to see Hart drop his “angry little man” persona to try to stretch himself as an actor, I found him to be just a little too screechy and animated to pull off the straight man role.

Thank the Maker for Johnson’s performance. Johnson’s is so disarmingly sweet and vulnerable as Bob, that you can’t help but like him. He undergoes a terrific physical transformation, but remains the same awkward kid he was in school on the inside. And he’s funny! Bob gets almost all of the big laughs in “Central Intelligence”. If I didn’t enjoy watching Johnson blow stuff up so much, I’d start praying he sticks with comedy and never does another action movie again.

The movie does offer viewers a couple of other treats. Jason Bateman shows up and is at his smarmy best as another figure from Calvin and Bob’s school days. And Aaron Paul shows up to steal scenes and get the biggest laugh in the movie.

The filmmakers pack in a couple of cool action scenes, and a gag involving a mail cart ends up being a show stopper. There’s even a scene where Bob faces an old tormentor that is kind of touching. If the filmmakers would have been a little more ambitious and some of the characters a little more fleshed out, this could been a great movie.

Still, for what it is, a buddy movie starring a diminutive stand-up comedian and a former professional wrestler, “Central Intelligence” is a good time. Johnson kills it in his role, raising your pulse, tugging at your heartstrings and extracting plenty of laughs, all in less than two hours. It’s an awful lot better than the last Kevin Hart vehicle (“Ride Along 2”, man was that a stinker). Let’s hope that Johnson will continue to practice his comedic chops, because I think he’s got a bright future in comedy.

3 Indy Fedoras out of 5

MPAA Rating: PG-13