Skip 'Bad Company'

By Marshall Fine
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

BAD COMPANY (Rated PG-13 for profanity, sexuality, graphic violence) One Star (Poor) A weak, incoherent action-comedy, about a street hustler forced to impersonate the twin brother he never knew he had — who happened to be a CIA agent trying to save the world. Starring Chris Rock, Anthony Hopkins. Touchstone Pictures, 110 minutes.

Which just points up why movies are so much better than reality.

In "Sum of All Fears," a lowly CIA analyst figures out the puzzle — and his superiors actually listen to him. Now in "Bad Company," the CIA replaces a highly skilled agent with his street-smart twin brother — and the rookie saves the day. If only things were this simple in real life.

Say what you will about "Sum of All Fears" — at least it had an actual plot and genuine suspense. "Bad Company," however, is ersatz from the first moment.

Kevin Pope (Chris Rock) and his boss, Gaylord Oakes (Anthony Hopkins), are CIA operatives in Prague, where they are trying to buy a nuclear device from a Russian gangster (Peter Stormare) to get it off the market. But after a meeting to confirm the upcoming buy, Kevin is ambushed and killed, apparently by rival buyers for the nuke. So Oakes must track down Kevin's separated-at-birth twin brother and recruit him to carry out the deal 10 days hence.

The unsuspecting pawn is a street hustler and ticket scalper named Jake Hayes (also played by Rock). When Oakes approaches him with the story of his brother and his plan for Jake to replace him, the dubious Jake agrees. But he has less than two weeks to learn to be like the brother he never knew he had and take his place.

Director Joel Schumacher has long since proved himself a director with little time for details, such as plot, character and cohesiveness. He's capable of generating endless reels of prefabricated action — which makes him the perfect choice to work with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the king of brainless cinematic hyperventilating. Together, they crank it out by the yard — but the merchandise is strictly second-rate.

Whenever the plot bogs down, Schumacher and writers Jason Richman and Michael Browning toss in a chase — on foot, in a car, it doesn't matter as long as people are running and distracting the audience from the plot. Or they'll have everyone start blasting away with automatic weapons. Hopkins, of course, uses one bullet at a time and hits at least three people with each slug, while his enemies spray automatic weapon fire and never hit anyone above the rank of extra on the casting sheet.

No one in Oakes' schematically diverse crew — a black man, a white woman, a senior citizen — ever registers as an actual character. Neither, for that matter, do the villains.

Hopkins walks through this movie with a look of boredom and bemusement on his face, as though he can't quite believe he's stooping this low — and being paid a boatload of cash to do so. He's too reserved and realistic to play straight man to wise-cracking, fast-talking Rock. Rock, on the other hand, attacks this role like a man desperately giving CPR to a heart-attack victim.

He could have saved his energy. "Bad Company" is strictly a "Do Not Resuscitate" situation.

Rated PG-13 for profanity, sexuality, graphic violence.