I really like Kevin Hart in comedies. Well, maybe that is a strange statement because as far as I know that is all he ever does. He makes a lot of money for himself and the studios in the process so I suppose there isn't much reason to try to venture elsewhere. He teams up with Dwayne Johnson in what is one of my favorite comedies of the past few years.

The film begins with Calvin Joyner (Hart) being praised by his high school for being a star athlete. He is popular, well-known, and loved by everyone at the school. During his ceremony a group of bullies in the school find a fat kid who was dancing in the shower and shove him into the auditorium / gym, naked, in front of the whole school. The fat kid was Robbie Weirdicht and is a very heavily CGI'd Dwayne Johnson. While the rest of the school laughs and points Calvin immediately feels sympathy for Weirdicht and covers him with his jacket.

20 years pass and Calvin has a boring accounting job and is unhappy with his career when out of the blue he gets some very nerdy texts from someone named Bob Stone via facebook and Bob reveals that he is actually Robbie Weirdicht and wants to meet up with Calvin. When they meet at a bar Calvin is amazed at how Weirdicht has transformed into an extremely muscular and confident dude. One of my favorite lines of the movie happens in this initial exchange when Calvin says "you look great man! How did you do it?" and the Rock replies

oh not much, just one thing actually...... I exercised 6 hours a day, every day, for 20 years straight

After talking for a while and catching up, Robbie reveals that he has some accounting documents that he wants Calvin to take a look at a them. Robbie understand the documents and is a big help. They get drunk and Robbie ends up crashing at Calvin's house that night and the following morning CIA agents come looking for "Bob Stone" but he eludes them. The CIA agents tell Calvin that Stone is a dangerous double agent of sorts called "The Black Badger." The thing is, Calvin was told a very different story by his old friend and has to make a choice about who to trust.

Robbie Weirdicht / Bob Stone needs Calvin's accounting expertise in order to determine how to chase down the actual Black Badger and insists he is not who the CIA agents say that he is and he only has good intentions. It is actually a pretty good story because throughout the film we, the audience, don't really know if Dwayne Johnson's character can be trusted either.

While a lot of the film is action oriented, a great deal of it is comedy as well. The particularly funny bits are the parts where Robbie Weirdicht / Bob Stone attempts to do slang and be cool, but he doesn't really grasp the concept properly saying things such as "You are sexy as dick!"

The main reasons why I like this movie is I feel as though Hart and Johnson work very well together. Plus the fact that Hart is not a big dude, and Johnson is the biggest dude - make them a funny combo. Also, since the story keeps you guessing about whether or not the Rock's character is actually who he says he is, the plot stays interesting throughout the entire movie.

8 / 10