What a strange, yet effective combo.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart in an action-spy comedy is an intriguing idea in itself, yet it’s the characters’s execution that make Central Intelligence a positive, entertaining film. Johnson is the film’s highlight, and it’s all thanks to how he plays his character: top CIA agent, and former high school geek Bob Stone/Robbie Weirdicht. Johnson is no stranger to comedy, but he’s usually casted as the straight man in a strange setting (such as The Tooth Fairy). Here, Johnson is the strangeness: a buff, badass nerd with the friendliest personality. He’s a big Unicorn fan (wears a shirt which displays one), always carries a fanny pack (which he stores his guns in), adores the film 16 Candles as well as the Twilight book series, and can rip a man’s throat out with his bare hands. Stone’s passive, friendly attitude gives him the impression of a cuddly bear…a cuddly grizzly bear that could mall you to death in seconds, but a cuddly one nonetheless. It’s a typecast half reversed, half played straight for Johnson—a very unusual mix which leads to hilarious results.
Kevin Hart’s character, Calvin “Jet” Joyner, sweetens the film’s already humorous premise, playing his typical straight man-wacky man, out-of-his-element persona, which works effectively well alongside Johnson’s badass, laid-back geekiness. The pair make for an engagingly amusing team, Stone continuously Batman-ing into Joyner’s—his “best friend”—life, wearing various disguises and pulling him deeper into an increasingly dangerous situation Joyner clearly wants out from;
Stone: Are you in, or are you out?
Joyner: Wha?
Stone: No time for questions, in or out?
Joyner: Well then I’m out!
Stone: …I’m sorry Jet, actually you’re in.
Joyner: Then why would you ask me!?
Stone: Because, I thought you would go, “I’m in Bob!” and we would have had a really cool moment, but you kinda ruined the whole thing.