Other Titles • Black Sheep • Czech Mate • The Double
Synopses for Bad Company (2002)
1.
Bad Company boasts all the gloss one expects from A-list Hollywood talent, but you get a lot of chaff with the wheat. Pay attention to Anthony Hopkins as a weary CIA veteran, and you'll see the reliable work of an old pro giving his best in the absence of challenge. That sums up this movie, however: Hopkins and costar Chris Rock are already fighting clichés when Rock is recruited into the CIA after his identical twin brother (they'd been separated at birth) is killed in the line of duty. Rock and Hopkins must carry out a sting against nuclear terrorists, but apart from this coincidental similarity to The Sum of All Fears, director Joel Schumacher seems asleep at the wheel, rotely crafting a thriller without thrills for Pearl Harbor producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Those expecting comedy from Rock will be disappointed; Bad Company reins him in, and that restraint affects the rest of the movie. --Jeff Shannon
(10 votes)
2.
A preposterous espionage thriller starring the unlikely pairing of Chris Rock and Anthony Hopkins, Bad Company is a prime example of brash, mainstream filmmaking. The plot premise says it all: with its separated identical twins, Russian terrorists, stolen nuclear weapons and high-tech gadgetry, it's an attempt to tie up elements of Lethal Weapon, Bond and The Matrix in one semi-coherent whole, although director Joel Shumacher never really pulls it off. The main fault lies with the relationship between Hopkins and Rock--the former looking increasingly uncomfortable in leather jacket and baseball cap. Rock, meanwhile, has the potential to be a fine actor (demonstrated by his fine turn in the Dogma) but is given very little to work with here aside from a weak, Eddie Murphy-style comedy stereotype. Despite all its shortcomings, however, Bad Company manages to build up to a fairly diverting, reasonably exciting conclusion.
On the DVD:Bad Company's DVD release is totally in keeping with the film itself: brash and showy, certainly, but lacking in real content. The gadgets, guns, explosions and chases all come up well in the digital format, as does the extensive use of the breathtaking Prague backdrop to the action. There are virtually no extras, however, with the package limited purely to a behind-the-scenes feature where everybody involved maintains what a great piece of work this film is, how wonderful the rest of the cast were and how much fun they had making it. --Phil Udell
(9 votes)
3.
Agent Gaylord Oakes (Anthony Hopkins) and Kevin Pope (Chris Rock) are partners and very high-level CIA agents who have been working a long time to stop a nuclear device fitted into a suitcase from falling into the wrong hands. The only way they can do this is to pretend to be buyers. Kevin Pope has been working under the name of Michael Turner, posing as an antiques dealer in Prague, gaining the confidence of a Russian black market seller, Adrik Vas (Peter Stormare). Pope introduces Vas to Oakes who is pretending to be an extraordinarily rich buyer.
Kevin is killed only nine days before the arranged purchase of the nuclear device and the only person that Adrik Vas trusts is Kevin. The CIA’s plan is to find Kevin’s twin brother, Jake, from whom he was separated at birth, and for Oakes to see if he can pass off Jake as Kevin to complete the mission.
(9 votes)
4.
Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock join up in the action-packed buddy movie BAD COMPANY. When CIA undercover operative Kevin Pope is killed during tense negotiations for a nuclear weapon, agent Gaylord Oakes (Hopkins) recruits the man's twin brother, Jake Hayes (Rock), to take his place and prevent the bomb from getting into the wrong hands. The problem is that Hayes, a streetwise kid who scalps tickets and hustles people playing chess in the parks, didn't even know he had a twin--and now he has only nine days to learn to impersonate his impeccably dressed, well-educated, well-trained agent brother. Rock is funny in this fish-out-of-water story as Hopkins tries desperately to transform him--something he considers to be an impossible mission.
Joel Schumacher, the director of such well-regarded films as TIGERLAND and FALLING DOWN, ups the action quotient as Oakes and Hayes and their determined crew (including Gabrielle Macht) travel to locations ranging from Prague to New York to save the world. Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, from NYPD Blue, plays Hayes' love interest, and Peter Stormare is the evil Vas. Hopkins and Rock make a great pair; Hayes is as loose as a goose, and Oakes is as tight as a drum. But as they get to know each other--and get thrown into dangerous situation after dangerous situation--they both discover a little something about life and love.
(6 votes)
5.
When a CIA agent is killed during a nuclear arms purchase, his partner Oakes recruits the agent's twin brother -- the smart-talking, streetwise Jake Hayes. Oakes has nine days to control Haye's sharp sense of humor, train him to be a CIA agent, and save New York City from an imminent nuclear terrorist attack.
(5 votes)
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