Move over Riggs and Murtaugh; there’s a new power couple in town, and they’re gunning for the buddy cop crown. That’s Kevin Hart and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who will soon be headlining Rawson Marshall Thurber’s larger-than-life action comedy, Central Intelligence.
As the creative mind behind both Dodgeball and We’re The Millers, moviegoers ought to have a good sense of where Marshall Thurber’s latest venture places on the comedy spectrum, and a new TV spot and clip for Central Intelligence today drive home the point that, yes, this is a movie that revels in the ridiculous.
Placing Dwayne Johnson in the role of chubby-geek-turned-lethal-CIA-agent Bob Stone, the upcoming summer comedy plays to each actor’s bankable strengths, particularly when it comes to Kevin Hart channeling the same frenetic energy that fired Ride Along 2 to a relatively healthy box office earlier in the year.
This time around, though, he’ll reluctantly join forces with Johnson’s high school friend – then referred to as Fat Robbie – for a balls-to-the-wall crime caper that promises effortless chemistry and, we hope, an old-fashioned romp that can stand alongside some of the best buddy cop movies.
Central Intelligence blasts into theaters on June 17 where Aaron Paul, Amy Ryan, Ed Helms, Danielle Nicolet and Bobby Brown also star.
The story follows a one-time bullied geek who grew up to be a lethal CIA agent (Johnson), coming home for his high school reunion. Claiming to be on a top-secret case, he enlists the help of the former “big man on campus” (Hart), now an accountant who misses his glory days. But before the staid numbers-cruncher realizes what he’s getting into, it’s too late to get out, as his increasingly unpredictable new friend drags him through a world of shoot-outs, double-crosses and espionage that could get them both killed in more ways than he can count.