Movie Review
The films catch line “All you need is a little Heart and big Johnson” set the tone for this film well before viewing. Dwayne Johnson has fantastic comedic timing and Kevin Hart is, well, Kevin Hart. Hart’s character is your atypical film character, not getting what he expects. Loud and obnoxious, but once you pair him up with the Rock’s unorthodox character this is a comedic match you didn’t know you were waiting for.
The action comedy does lean more on the comedy side, and with the thin story line, it works to its benefit. The chemistry between Hart and Johnson translates well into their characters and makes the movie that much more enjoyable. If you’re a fan of the buddy comedy do not hesitate to pop this in your player and enjoy the show.
Video
It’s rare these days to find anything wrong with a Blu-ray transfer. Warner Bros. once again hits it out of the park with this pristine presentation. From the perfectly balanced black levels to the vibrant daylight scenes this video look as good as it can at 1080p. It has an aspect ratio of 2.41:1.
Audio
Here comes the BOOM! It fills the room. For a buddy film, Central Intelligence uses the audio environment perfectly. It uses the surrounds with the well balanced front to fill the room during the action sequences and even the subtler little audio pieces like in the bar (Bronies unite). The witty dialog is never obscured by the DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio mix.
Extras
Can’t say I was expecting much here, but you get a double dose of extras. The PG version and the Unrated version, except the commentary with Director Rawson Marshall Thurber and Co-Editor Mike Sale, which is PG only regardless of which menu you pick it from.
The Alternate Scenes in the UR version could be its own movie there as there is 1-hour and nine minutes of comedy here. The rated version gives you just over 18-minutes of footage.
Line-O-Rama is just a bunch of takes of different lines from different scenes in the film. Both version run around the two minutes 30s mark.
Dwayne Johnson has a dance off with his younger body double Sione Kelepi in Dance Off. There is the Couch Time Lapse as well, which shows you had they did the one take tracking shot. Very cool to see this little bit of movie magic.
Wrapping things up is a gag reel which comes in both flavours again with the UR version running about 45-seconds longer
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
This is a much better movie than I was expecting and the Blu-ray outing meets my expectations. Taking the biggest movie star we have right now with one of the best comedians and showcasing them properly with gorgeous audio and video. The extra helping of extras are a little over done, but otherwise, fun to watch. All-in-all, I’d recommend taking this one home.
