Central Intelligence

If you’ve seen the preview trailer, you know the setup: 20 years after high school graduation, the kid voted most likely to succeed has become a frustrated, stalled-out office drone (Kevin Hart), while the bullied fat nerd has morphed into a dashing, heroic hunk (Dwayne Johnson)—but also a bit of a loose cannon, maybe even a traitorous rogue CIA agent. The frenetic, whining Hart and the ice-cool Johnson make a good team, and the script by Ike Barinholtz, David Stassen and director Rawson Marshall Thurber is a good one, with good laughs, a clever plot and some perceptive touches about teenage insecurities that never quite go away. A couple of unbilled star cameos add amusement, and Amy Ryan is good as a pursuing CIA agent. (Danielle Nicolet as Hart’s wife, however, is underused.) Sequels are inevitable. J.L.