Central Intelligence

Plot

In 1996, popular student and star athlete Calvin Joyner (Kevin Hart) is being honored at his high school's senior assembly. Halfway through Joyner's speech, Trevor Olson (Dylan Boyack) and his friends grab shy, overweight student Robbie Wheirdicht (Sione Kelepi) from the boy's locker room and throw him into the assembly naked. Only Joyner and his girlfriend, Maggie Johnson (Danielle Nicolet), are sympathetic towards Wheirdicht, who runs away quickly after Joyner has given him his varsity jacket to cover his private parts. Everyone else, including the bullies, laugh, and the devastated Wheirdicht drops out of school and disappears after the incident.

Twenty years later, Joyner is married to Johnson and works as a forensic accountant but is dissatisfied with his career. Johnson suggests they see a therapist to salvage their deteriorating marriage. At work, Joyner receives a friend request on Facebook from a man named Bob Stone, who reveals that he is Wheirdicht and requests that they meet. Joyner is shocked to see that Wheirdicht (Dwayne Johnson) has transformed into a muscular, confident man. Stone asks Joyner to review a few accounting records. Joyner deciphers the records as multi-million dollar transactions from an auction, with the final payment set to be made the following day. Stone avoids Joyner's questions and spends the night on his couch.

The next morning, a group of CIA agents led by Pamela Harris (Amy Ryan) arrive at Joyner's house in search of Stone, who escapes and erases all traces of his presence. Harris tells Joyner that Stone is a dangerous rogue agent who intends to sell satellite codes to the highest bidder. Soon after, Stone abducts Joyner and explains that he is trying to stop a criminal known as the Black Badger from selling the codes but needs Joyner's skills to find the coordinates of the deal's location. After an attack by a bounty hunter, Joyner flees and calls Johnson, telling her to meet him at the marriage counselor's office. Harris intercepts him and tells him that Stone murdered his partner Phil Stanton and is the Black Badger himself. She warns him to refrain from telling Johnson and gives him a device to alert them to Stone's location. Joyner then arrives for marriage counseling, where he finds Stone posing as the counselor (the real counselor bound and gagged with duct tape in the office closet by Stone).

Stone convinces Joyner to help him, and Joyner sets up a meeting with Olson (Jason Bateman) who is able to track the offshore account for the auction, so they can get the deal's location. Olson at first apologizes for his behavior 20 years ago, but then reveals that he was only kidding them and bullies Stone again who is unable to react despite Joyner encouraging him to punch Olson for this. Harris calls Joyner and threatens to arrest Johnson if he fails to help them detain Stone. Joyner is forced to betray Stone, and the CIA arrests him. As Harris tortures Stone to get him to confess, Joyner decides to help Stone escape, and the two get away. Joyner deduces that the deal is happening in Boston and helps Stone steal a plane. At an underground parking garage, where the deal is assumed to be taking place, Stone enters alone, while Joyner sees Harris entering a short while later. He mistakenly assumes that she is the Black Badger and runs after her, only to find Stone meeting with the buyer and claiming to be the Black Badger. Stone shoots Joyner, grazing his neck, to keep him safe.

Stanton (Aaron Paul) arrives, revealing that he is alive, and claims he is the real Black Badger. The buyer attempts to retrieve codes from both Stone and Stanton, but the CIA arrives and a shootout begins, while Joyner grabs both codes and runs outside. He encounters Stone and Stanton, who engage in combat. Unable to decide who is the criminal, Joyner aims randomly and shoots Stone, allowing Stanton to knock him down. Unfortunately, Stanton then confesses that he is the Black Badger and that Stone is innocent. Joyner causes a distraction by backflipping over Stanton, allowing Stone to rip Stanton's throat out, killing him. The two deliver the codes to Harris, who then drops them off at their high school reunion, where Joyner reconciles with Johnson. Stone is announced as the Homecoming King, with Joyner revealing to Johnson that he hacked the voting system to ensure Stone's win. Olson attempts to bully Stone a third time, but Stone knocks him out. As Stone delivers his speech, he relives his most embarrassing high-school moment and takes off all his clothes confidently. He walks off stage to unite with his high-school crush Darla McGuckian (Melissa McCarthy), a formerly cross-eyed girl. Stone, Joyner, and everyone else dance.

Before the ending credits, some time after the meeting, Johnson is pregnant and Joyner has joined the CIA. As a gift for his first day on the job, Stone gives Joyner back his varsity jacket from high school.

Cast

Development

Greenlighted by Warner Bros., the film was announced in 2015. Thurber was selected to direct and started to write the script together with Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen. That year, Dwayne Johnson was cast alongside Kevin Hart.

Filming

Principal photography began on May 6, 2015, and took place throughout various Massachusetts locations, including Boston, Burlington, Lynn, Middleton, and Quincy. Principal photography ended in July 2015. To promote the film, Johnson and Hart had an Instagram war against each other on the set.

Release

The film premiered at the Regency Village Theater on June 10, 2016. Warner Bros. handles distribution in the United States, where the film opened on June 17, 2016, while Universal covers global distribution, as the film was released between June and July 2016.

Home media

Central Intelligence was released on Digital SD on September 13, 2016, before being released on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD on September 27, 2016.

Box office

Central Intelligence grossed $127.4 million in North America and $89.5 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $217 million, against a budget of $50 million.

Central Intelligence opened on June 17, 2016, alongside Finding Dory, and was projected to gross around $30 million from 3,508 theaters in its opening weekend. The film grossed $1.8 million from its Thursday previews and $13 million on its first day. The film went on to gross $35.5 million, finishing second at the box office behind Finding Dory ($135.1 million).

Critical response

Central Intelligence received generally positive to mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 70% based on 161 reviews with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson make for well-matched comic foils, helping Central Intelligence overcome a script that coasts on their considerable chemistry." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 52 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film two out of four stars, writing "If you're expecting the story threads to cohere, you're in the wrong multiplex. Central Intelligence always takes the lazy way out. You go along for the ride because Hart and Johnson promise something they can't deliver: a movie as funny as they are." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club criticized the film as a "shambolic high-concept farce that doubles as a cautionary tale of where studio comedies go wrong," writing: "In spots as indifferent and self-indulgent as any latter-day Adam Sandler production ... , [Intelligence] switches back and forth from snail-paced to incoherently over-stuffed on a moment’s notice, with no in-between mode." Keith Phipps of Uproxx gave the film a positive review, saying "It all adds up to the sort of breezy, undemanding comedy that fits nicely into the summer months, and plays beautifully in endless cable repeats."