Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, of Dodgeball fame, Central Intelligence is surprisingly not terrible.

The odd-couple film introduces us to┬ápopular and successful jock Calvin┬á(Kevin Hart), and brutally teased and overweight Robbie (Dwayne Johnson) at an end-of-high-school assembly. The year ends well for Calvin, receiving the ‘most likely to succeed award’, but badly for Robbie who is embarrassed in front of all his peers by some bullies, ┬áonly┬áto have Calvin come to his aid. Seven years on, their lives have not turned out as their younger selves may have expected. Calvin now works in an underwhelming accountancy office whilst Robbie is now ripped and working for the CIA. ┬áIn the wake of a high school reunion and through terse plot devices, they are┬áreunited before becoming tangled up in general and rather unclear ‘government secret things’. There is little more to tell of the plot; it’s not a very inspired set up, and looks from the beginning to be the sort of film that relies heavily on the chemistry between the two expensive lead actors.

The action sequences don’t make much sense and are uninteresting (they┬ájust move quite fast), the plot holes are too great in quantity to ignore, and lazy humour such as the opening sequence of an overweight person dancing┬áwill never be funny to anyone over the age of 12. These criticisms┬áare applicable to most of the glossy, money-making┬áaction/comedy films of recent years however, somehow, this particular one┬áisn’t entirely unwatchable.┬áIt’s painful to admit, but┬ásome bits are actually enjoyable enough to not make you want to leave the cinema. Kevin Hart’s yelping is thankfully toned down as straight-man Calvin, the caricature of Robbie┬áis quite endearing and almost believable, and the two of them together form a relatively novel┬áodd-couple relationship in spite of the cliche character designs. The back and forth’s between them are the actual┬áfunny┬áparts,┬ámaking someone like me – who finds these types of film┬ápainful viewing – laugh out loud a shocking┬áamount of times.

I’ve seen reviews for this film that go on to 800+ words, dissecting the morals and nuances of the film and even likening Hart and Johnson to┬áAbbot and Costello. It must be made clear: this film is nowhere near that good. In the end, it’s still a forgettable big budget film that relies on the popular actors it has cast to carry the film (including an instance where Aaron Paul quotes his Breaking Bad character, with a ‘bitch!’ for a cheap, referential pop culture┬álaugh),┬áand has a plot┬áline in desperate need of proof reading. However┬áthe dialogue is amusing enough, it doesn’t have embarrassingly crass or childish humour past the opening sequence, and┬áthe acting is perfectly fine; making┬áCentral Intelligence not good, but┬áentirely watchable.