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Bad Company
Studio: Touchstone
Year: 2002
Rated: PG-13
Film Length: 117 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16X9 Enhanced Widescreen (2.35:1)
Subtitles: English and Spanish
Two Mismatched Partners. One Messed Up Case!
One would immediately expect that when you combine
the talents of Producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pearl
Harbor, Black Hawk Down, Armageddon) with director
Joel Schumacher (The Lost Boys, Tigerland) the end
result would be nothing short of a film that's
wildly entertaining. Instead, Bad Company comes
up as a loud, dumb joyless ride that seems to drag
on forever.
With a plot usually reserved for B-movies, the
film opens in the Czech Republic where Kevin Pope
(Chris Rock in a double role) gets assassinated
while saving the life of Agent Gaylord Oakes (Anthony
Hopkins) during a CIA sting operation involving the
purchase of a suitcase-enclosed nuclear bomb from a
Russian Mafia lieutenant (Peter Stormare). To conceal
Pope's death the CIA brings his twin brother, Jake,
into the situation, promising him enough money to allow
him to marry his girlfriend, Julie (Kerry Washington).
While Jake may look like his brother, he
certainly isn't as sophisticated. With only nine
days to go, Jake must be totally transformed from
a street-hustling, cell-phone driven scalper to a
well-mannered gentleman who can identify expensive
shirts and fine wines and literally ends up saving
the world all by himself. If you can believe this
sort of nonsense, perhaps you deserve to like this
film.
The real question to be asked here is Why was
Bad Company even made?. What is it supposed
to be? An action film? There's not a lot of action
to be found. A comedy? Damned if I even smiled once
during the entire film. Fact of the matter is that
Bad Company is an example of what happens
when top filmmakers decide to engage in a careless
and irresponsible cash grab. It's just a shame that
a talent like Anthony Hopkins got caught in the middle
of all this.
How is the transfer?
The only praise this DVD is going to get from me
is its transfer. It's as good as one gets. Images
are sharp and detailed, and the deep black levels
add a bit of texture to the film. What strikes
you most about this film is its variation of color
tones. The opening scenes of the Czech Republic
are warmly reproduced with nice golden colors. We
then immediately go to New York City with its raw
whites and brash backgrounds that come across with
amazing clarity. A disco scene provides warm blue
and red lighting. Two thirds into the film, there
is a car chase across Prague's lush green countryside.
I don't think you'll ever see grass look as vividly
green as it does here.
The DTS 5.1 Digital mix is a nice representation
of the spacial quality and distinct sound direction
the format adds to a film's soundtrack. There's a
lot of thrust within this mix with nice robust,
bass-heavy sound across the front channels. The
Hip-Hop soundtrack provides a great deal of deep
LFE channel boom. The rears provide a whalloping
amount of effect noise that range from machine gun
fire that bounces across the room to helicopters
that fly from back to front. When there's absence
of any of the overly loud action noise, the rears
provide more quiet ambient sounds of New York City
traffic or even a thunderstorm.
Special Features
I was quite thankful when I went into the
Supplemental area and found very little material
to wade through. After having to sit through this
film the last thing I needed was to look at a bunch
of supplements that supported it.
The one and only feature here is a promotional
featurette, In Bad Company: An Inside Look.
I must admit, it was awfully difficult to sit and
watch Schumacher, Bruckheimer and the cast promote
this film as entertainment. Poor Anthony Hopkins...
he tells us his agent called him and highly
recommended he do this film. Ten to one that agent
was fired shortly afterwards. The funny thing is,
Hopkins admits to only reading half the script before
he was signed. There's a lot of behind-the-scenes
action shown here amidst the actors all praising
one another. Schumacher ends it all by talking
about how generous the people of Prague were for
allowing him to shoot on famous landmarks. It
certainly seems the cast had a wonderful time
filming in that city.
(length: approx. 12 minutes)
Nothing else to see here -- you can all go home
now. No commentary, no original trailer, no
problems for this reviewer.
Final Thoughts
Well, I'd much rather have an awful movie with a
great transfer than the other way around, and that's
exactly what you get here. If this film is your
kind of mindless popcorn flick, you are going to
be very happy with the presentation.
Now, should I lower myself and use the cliche?
Sure, why not. Here we go...
Bad Company is a bad movie.
Release Date: Now
