Central Intelligence has plenty of Hart but not enough brains

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard in the cinema that I ended up having to discreetly pick popcorn from the hair of the person in front of me, although I did come close with three of my most favourite comedies in recent years: 2008’s Step Brothers, 2013’s Anchorman 2 and the highly-underrated This Is The End. A lot of it is personal taste, of course. But for the most part, comedy movies miss the bullseye, sometimes veering too far off-target altogether, with this year’s Zoolander and Bad Neighbours sequels being the most recent examples of unfunny and plain wrong standing in for concrete comedy writing. 

Here, we open with familiar whiffs of 21 Jump Street, with Kevin Hart’s popular jock Calvin Joyner and Duane Johnson’s obese outcast Bob Stone as teenagers (the latter of which you’ll never be able to un-see), and the opposites of who they become in later life. Calvin is now a pint-sized accountant who is bored of his humdrum existence, and Bob is a muscle-bound man-child with an affinity for fanny-packs and all things unicorn. But when Calvin and Bob are reacquainted in the build-up to their high school reunion, things go south when Calvin realises there’s more to Bob than a love for bench-presses and magical horses. 

Unfortunately, Johnson’s adorably-insane performance – the film’s strongest comedy element – is short-lived when the movie suddenly squanders its own potential by delving into the unimpressive waters of generic action comedy (handled far better by the Jump Street movies) with some unintelligent plot about a CIA conspiracy and a USB stick, calling upon him to don his gun-toting alter ego. 

This is the softest-looking rock I've ever seen...

While the storytelling is far from poor, it’s a shame the movie didn’t focus less on the CIA shenanigans and more on the high school reunion, especially with elements of bullying in the narrative, which, if explored properly rather than used as leg-ups for a lot of the jokes, could have added some meaningful layers to the plot. And through this, we’d have also enjoyed more of Johnson’s hilarious Bob Stone, considering we’ve already seen him lay the smack-down on everything from the ring to Hollywood’s most expensive cars.

Central Intelligence is no stroke of comedy genius, but in its defence, it did make me laugh – almost hysterically in parts - from start to finish, meaning it did exactly what it set out to do. But over the next few weeks, I’ll likely forget about it. That’s not to suggest it’s entirely forgettable, but with the most memorable aspects being its comedy duo over both the plot and the jokes, I’m just not convinced that’s a good thing. 

In a summer where overly-anticipated blockbusters have left nothing in their wake besides disaster and disappointment, this almost-refreshingly fun Friday night flick provides light relief and is worth a watch if you’re a fan of its two stars. But sadly, that’s all I’d give it out of five.