The latest offering from action maestro Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun, Pearl Harbor) finds him walking the well trodden path of the "unlikely cop duo." Adhering almost exactly to the formula set up by the Gibson/Glover and more recently, DeNiro/Murphy, onscreen partnerships, Bad Company casts Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins, obviously as the straight-as-an-arrow white character, alongside up and coming Murphy wannabe, Chris Rock -- already appearing to be typecast into the role of mouthy guy from the streets. The two are forced together after Rock's twin brother is murdered whilst attempting to buy a nuclear bomb from a member of the Russian mafia in order to keep it out of the hands of a group of Eastern European terrorists who want to detonate the devise underneath Grand Central Station. Rock, a street wise hustler, must therefore impersonate his wine drinking, opera loving brother, in order for the sale to go through.
Perhaps the lack of originality in the film's plot could be forgiven if it possessed any dimension beyond its blatant slashes at the jugual through fast paced action scenes. It does not. Not only are the bad guys little more than stereotyped caricatures -- whom the audience do not believe for a second actually possess the ability to carry out their dastardly plan -- but most frustratingly, the talents of the leading men are woefully underused. Hopkins looks awkward throughout the film, but never more so, then when he is forced to don a leather jacket, cap and jeans and engage in one of the film's many fight and chase scenes. Rock looks slightly more at ease, and the occasions when he is allowed to launch into his trademark comic outbursts are certainly the film's highlights; however in a film that appears unable to decide whether it wants to be taken seriously or as comedy, his teasing brand of humor appears out of place and only serves to emphasize the flatness of the characters surrounding him.
