Bad Company

Bad Company
Film poster
Directed by	Joel Schumacher
Produced by	Jerry Bruckheimer Michael Browning Mike Stenson
Screenplay by	Jason Richman Michael Browning
Story by	Gary M. Goodman David Himmelstein
Starring	Anthony Hopkins Chris Rock Kerry Washington
Music by	Trevor Rabin
Cinematography	Dariusz Wolski
Editing by	Mark Goldblatt Robert Lambert
Studio	Jerry Bruckheimer Films Stillking Productions
Distributed by	Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s)	June 7, 2002 (2002-06-07)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$70 million[1]
Box office	$65,977,295[1]

Bad Company is a 2002 action-comedy film directed by Joel Schumacher, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock.

Plot

When a mission to retrieve a stolen suitcase bomb goes bad, CIA agent Kevin Pope (Rock) is killed. Pope was working undercover as an antiquities dealer under the name Michael Turner. The CIA, which is desperate to complete the mission, discovers that Agent Pope had a twin brother, Jake Hayes (also Rock), from whom he was separated at birth; their mother died giving birth and Hayes suffered from a severe lung infection that prompted the doctors to separate them because they felt that Hayes was unlikely to live for very long. Hayes hustles chess games, scalps tickets and works at small clubs in Jersey City to make ends meet. Meanwhile Hayes's girlfriend, Julie (Kerry Washington) grows tired of waiting for him to grow up and decides to move to Seattle, Washington.

After the CIA successfully persuades Hayes to participate and begins to train Hayes for a mission that is to take place in Prague (Czech Republic), they are initially dismayed by his lack of refinement. Agent Oakes (Hopkins) confronts Hayes, telling him he doesn't trust him. When Hayes begins paying attention, the CIA sets him up in his brother's old apartment in Manhattan to test him and try to bait the men who killed his brother. Hayes is attacked, but escapes unharmed. Looking for a way out, Hayes goes to his foster mother only to be found by Oakes, who persuades him to finish the mission.

After arriving in Prague, Hayes - posing as his dead brother - meets with the men selling the suitcase bomb. The seller, Adrik Vas, is an ex-Russian Army Colonel with ties to the Russian Mafia. When they return to their hotel, Hayes is greeted by his brother's ex-girlfriend Nicole (Garcelle Beauvais). Believing Hayes is his brother, she dines with him and returns to his hotel, where the couple is ambushed by rival buyers. Nicole figures out that Hayes isn't his brother and returns to her assignment covering the Balkans for CNN.

Moving forward with the plans, Hayes and Oakes meet up with Adjanic and are able to steal the arming codes. Just as they close the deal, Vas' men double cross them with the rival buyer. When the rival dealers, who are part of a Greek terrorist organization, learn they can't detonate the bomb because of the missing codes, they kidnap Julie. Hayes gives himself up trying to save his girlfriend, and the terrorists get the codes back and arm the bomb.

Now the race begins to find Hayes and the bomb. After interrogating one of the captured terrorists, they track the bomb to Grand Central Station. With the clock ticking, they locate the bomb and Andre, who has started the countdown. Oakes rescues Hayes by killing two terrorists. As Hayes starts to enter the codes to disarm the bomb, Andre holds Julie hostage. In order to distract Andre, Hayes pretends to shoot Oakes, and they kill Andre by shooting him repeatedly. Hayes is able to disarm the bomb just prior to detonation.

At the ending of the film, Hayes visits the memorial for deceased secret agents to visit his brother's grave. Later on, Oakes comes up to Hayes at Hayes's wedding and warns him that a dangerous criminal has escaped from prison and is seeking revenge upon Kevin Pope, but since Kevin is dead and Hayes was impersonating him, the criminal thinks Hayes is Kevin. Hayes begins to panic and demand that Oakes has to protect him, but Oakes starts laughing as he reveals that it was just a joke and he really just came for the wedding.

Cast

• Anthony Hopkins as Officer Oakes
• Chris Rock as Jake Hayes/Kevin Pope/Michael Turner
• Peter Stormare as Adrik Vas
• Gabriel Macht as Officer Seale
• Kerry Washington as Julie
• Adoni Maropis as Jarma/Dragan Henchman #1
• Garcelle Beauvais as Nicole
• Matthew Marsh as Dragan Adjanic
• Dragan Mićanović as Michelle 'The Hammer' Petrov
• John Slattery as Roland Yates
• Brooke Smith as Officer Swanson
• Daniel Sunjata as Officer Carew
• DeVone Lawson Jr. as Officer Parish
• Wills Robbins as Officer McCain
• Marek Vašut as Andre

Reception

Bad Company did poorly at the box office earning only $30,160,161 in the United States and $35,817,134 outside the US for a worldwide total of $65,977,295.^[1] The film was originally slated to be released in December 2001 but because of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the film's release was postponed given the fact the film was about a terrorist attack on New York City.^[2]

The film was also generally poorly received by film critics. On film review compilation site Rotten Tomatoes, the film is given a 10% "rotten" rating, based on 133 reviews; the site's critical consensus stated [that both] "Chris Rock and Anthony Hopkins fail to generate the sparks necessary to save the movie from a generic and utterly predictable script."^[3] Seattle Post-Intelligencer reviewer William Arnold calls the film "wildly overproduced, inadequately motivated every step of the way and demographically targeted to please every one (and no one)."^[4] Roger Ebert remarks in the Chicago Sun-Times that the film "jams too many prefabricated story elements into the running time."^[5] On their review show, Ebert and Richard Roeper gave it two thumbs down, arguing that it "might have been considered original, had it been made [set] before 48 Hrs. and Lethal Weapon and Rush Hour and every other action movie about a racially mixed pair of partners who initially despise each other, but learn to, well, you know the whole drill."

However, David Hunter of The Hollywood Reporter noted the film as having "all the familiar Bruckheimer elements, and Schumacher does probably as good a job as anyone at bringing off the Hopkins/Rock collision of acting styles and onscreen personas."^[6]

Soundtrack

A soundtrack containing hip hop, alternative and R&B music was released on June 4, 2002 by Hollywood Records. It peaked at number 98 on the Billboard 200 and number 11 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.^[7]

References

External links

• Bad Company at the Internet Movie Database
• Bad Company at Rotten Tomatoes
• Bad Company at Box Office Mojo