DVD REVIEW

Bad Company  (2002)

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Chris Rock
Director: Joel Schumacher

Rating: PG-13

Studio: Touchstone

Review Posted: 12.28.02

Spoilers: None

By John Teves.

Veteran CIA agent Gaylord Oakes (Hopkins) must recruit streetwise punk Jake Hayes (Rock) when Jake's identical twin brother is killed in the line of duty. With only nine days to complete a nuclear weapons negotiation, Jake has to go from smart talking to smooth operating and convince all parties he is the sophisticated brother he never knew. From Prague to New York, the chase is on and the clock is ticking when more than a preemptive arms deal goes "bad."

BAD COMPANY offers a neat and spicy film. The film steers clear of ever becoming boring. While I don’t think BAD COMPANY does much that seems particularly original or gripping, it offers a reasonably involving action flick that works tolerably well as a whole. The film gives us great performances from both Hopkins and Rock, but sorry to say nothing stands out as tremendously brilliant, nevertheless it creates a reasonably exciting piece that I enjoyed for the most part.

BAD COMPANY appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this single-sided, dual-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. The picture quality looked decent. Sharpness was definite. The film presentation looked crisp and detailed at all times and there were no signs of softness at all. No concerns with jagged edges and not much of a concern with edge enhancement to note a major concern.

There were signs of grain in a couple of shots; otherwise the film presentation was neat and brand new. The color pallet worked adequately well for this type of film. Black levels looked deep and solid while shadow detailed was heavy but never over thick. I thought BAD COMPANY demonstrated a great visual event.

BAD COMPANY is presented in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 mix. I thought both mix’s sounded identical, with the DTS track giving us a deeper base. The surrounds seemed reactive much of the time, coming to life during the movie’s action sequences. I actually thought my speakers were in for a good work out, but unfortunately I was wrong. The action effects filled the environment reasonably well. Audio speech sounded plane, but dialogue sounded natural and distinctive. The music score sounded strong and dynamic.

Ultimately, BAD COMPANY scored a positive audio experience, however the sound mix doesn’t match up to the previous action films from Jerry Bruckheimer’s collection.

Considering the film's dismal take at the box office, the DVD does not carry any weight in the special features department, except for a documentary.

• “In Bad Company: An Inside Look” Documentary
• Sneak Peeks
• THX Optimizer

Despite the fact of falling short of extras, the DVD provides generally positive picture along with fine audio. BAD COMPANY remains too uninspiring for it to earn a strong recommendation, but the combination of action/comedy along with good acting from Hopkins and Rock should at least warrant a rental.

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