I never thought I’d see the day that Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock were in the same movie together. This idea alone would seem like a gimmick just to sell tickets. The story is not the most original, but Hopkins and Rock do make it worth seeing. This would be a good movie to rent in a few months.

The roles are stereotypical, Oakes (Hopkins) is the white straight arrow veteran CIA agent and Hayes (Rock) is the black wise cracking ticket scalper. As it turns out, Hayes had a twin brother, from whom he was separated at birth, who worked with Oakes and was killed on an important assignment involving a nuclear devise. Oakes recruits Hayes to fill in for his deceased twin brother so the CIA can apprehend the bad guys. Hayes is trained to speak Czech, learn fine wines, and appreciate classical music, all of which he has nine days to learn. Hayes is shot at, wants to quit, Oakes refuses to let him, tells him whats really going on to gain his trust, Hayes reluctantly returns, etcetera, etcetera.

If anyone could pull off this far-fetched scenario, it would be Hopkins. Rock himself proves to be more than just a stand up comic, he’s a pretty good actor too. Its obvious that certain scenes were written so Rock could do his thing, but he’s so good that it is not distracting or detracting from the movie. The two of them have a good chemistry, more than just ‘opposites attract’. The women in the movie do not have many important things to do, except wait for a man to save them, but thats to be expected in a movie produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

The biggest flaw in this movie, like many before and certainly many to come, is that it could’ve been about twenty minutes shorter. The ending has several long chase scenes where a little editing would have been nice. Still, it is not too over the top, and the Hopkins/Rock combination are so enjoyable that it makes the movie as a whole worth watching. It has the right balance between action and comedy, not taking itself too seriously, while not degenerating into a slapstick idiotfest. Director Joel Schumacher, who ruined the Batman franchise, also directed another good movie Tigerland, thus continues on the road to redemption.

Rating: ***