BEFORE: Melissa McCarthy carries over from "The Boss" for an uncredited cameo, and this is the end of her chain, for now - if my plans hold she'll be back for one more film in November. And another big (really big) actor steps up, and he'll be here for just over a week, and his films will usher in October and the horror/fantasy theme.
I'll admit it, I've been avoiding the films with "The Rock" in them - especially that "Fast & Furious" franchise. Boy, if I'm ever so hard up that I watch all those movies, it might seriously be time for me to stop this project. Just a personal inkling - I mean, never say never about anything, but that would be a big warning sign for me. But I watched "Moana" about 2 years ago, and I realized that Mr. Johnson could be funny, and then last year "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" popped up at the top of the list, and that made me question why I was, perhaps unconsciously, boycotting this man's movies. I wasn't actively not watching them, so much as not really seeking them out - but then I put together a nice little chain of them, took a couple months to get this all together, but if that helps me get to the end of my first Perfect Year, then it's all sort of worth it in the end.
THE PLOT: After he reconnects with an awkward pal from high school through Facebook, a mild-mannered accountant is lured into the world of international espionage.
AFTER: Now here's a film that's a comedy but also a spy film, not really a spoof of spy films, because there's probably enough action here to be taken seriously, several well-choreographed fight scenes, even though some of them tend to run on a little too long. But tone is everything, and if a film is too silly then it just kind of devolves into slapstick like "Spy" did, for example. This is action when it needs to be action, and comedy when it needs to be comedy - but this leads to some odd shifts in character for Dwayne Johnson. I really couldn't get a handle on his character, like was he genuinely goofily dumb, or just playing goofily dumb, which would be acceptable for a character who was a professional spy, trying to rope in an old friend to his world.
But then this leads to another set of questions, if you assume that he's just playing at being goofy and sincere, is he doing this for good purposes, or evil ones? The film takes a really long time in deciding this, and that's part of the fun, but it's also fairly maddening. He's apparently some kind of rogue CIA agent being pursued by other CIA agents, but maybe he's good and they're the evil agents, it wouldn't be the first time for that. But then maybe it's a double-bluff, and he's evil playing good playing goofy and sincere. The other CIA agents seem to think that agent Bob Stone is also the elusive Black Badger, the very man that he's (supposedly?) trying to track down.
This puts Calvin Joyner (and by extension, the audience) in a difficult position, because for the longest time, we're not really sure who to root for here. Bob Stone seems to be on the up-and-up, and he seems to regard Calvin as a friend because of a pranking incident back in high school, where he was the only kid in class who was nice to him, but in other ways Bob Stone doesn't seem to have his head screwed on completely right. He admits that he took the pain from that prank and pushed it down, pushed it down and tried not to think of it that much - maybe it motivated him to work out 6 hours a day for 20 years and build an incredible set of muscles, but perhaps it also twisted and corrupted him to become some kind of psychopath. And then on top of that, it doesn't help that we get to see several different versions of how his ex-partner died.
There are other ways that this film (like many other spy films) is light on the details of spy work - much like how "The Boss" was very light on explaining how business works. There's some kind of arms deal going down, though we never really see what weapons are being sold. Or maybe it's some kind of satellite codes? And they're on a thumb-drive? I suppose it doesn't really matter in the end, it only matters that some bad people are bidding on something, and the high bidder gets something very important, and Stone needs the accounting skills of his high-school friend to figure it all out.
Unfortunately, it takes nearly the whole movie for these two to get on the same page, really. Imagine what they could have accomplished if they had decided to work together from the get-go and were able to combine their skills in a positive way, and not keep flip-flopping over what to do at every single turn.
On a positive note, there's a very strong anti-bullying message here - but unfortunately, it seems the only way suggested to BEAT a bully is to become bigger and stronger and better at fighting than the bullies are, and beat them at their own game. But isn't that bullying the bullies? Surely there must be a better way of dealing with this type of person than sinking to their own level, right? You'd think that a creative writer should be able to come up with a much more constructive method of dealing with bullies, but nope, the choices seem to be either 1) nut up and take it, force it down until you can't feel it any more, sweep it under the carpet because if you can't see it, it's not there or 2) work out until you're Hercules-size and then track them down and kick their ass.
And then once you've achieved your goal of dealing with the embarrassment of being naked in front of your whole senior class, congratulations! You're a stronger person now, and you can take off your clothes at the reunion and be proud (or at least unashamed) of your body. Yeah, that's a weird message. I'm going to recommend that you keep your clothes ON at your next high-school reunion, unless you meet someone very special there - but please don't strip in front of the whole class. Umm, nobody seems offended by this? That's a little odd. Nobody calls the cops to report a case of indecent exposure? Again, that's a head-scratcher.
Also starring Dwayne Johnson (last seen in "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle"), Kevin Hart (last seen in "Top Five"), Amy Ryan (last seen in "Goosebumps"), Aaron Paul (last seen in "Triple 9"), Danielle Nicolet, Ryan Hansen (last seen in "Superhero Movie"), Tim Griffin (last seen in "Higher Learning"), Timothy John Smith (last seen in "The Equalizer"), Megan Park (last seen in "Room"), Thomas Kretschmann (last seen in "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot"), Jason Bateman (last seen in "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium"), Kumail Nanjiani (last seen in "Fist Fight"), Phil Reeves (last seen in "Downsizing"), Nate Richman (last seen in "Stronger").
RATING: 5 out of 10 Facebook friend requests
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