Name: Retro Film Review: Bad Company (1995)
Item: Bad Company
Rating: 50
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

Nowadays Americans know better, but in early 1990s the end of Cold War seemed to have taken away much of CIA's purpose. The Agency was downsized, with many of its agents being forced to find employment in private sector. That includes protagonists of Bad Company, 1995 thriller directed by Damian Harris. Nelson Crowe (played by Laurence Fishburne) is former CIA agent who finds employment in "Tool Shed", organisation led by former CIA agent Vic Grimes (played by Frank Langella). "Tool Shed" provides espionage, blackmail, dirty tricks and similar clandestine services to corporations and private individuals. Crowe, thanks to his looks and deadly skills, quickly attracts attention of Grimes' assistant Margaret Wells (played by Ellen Barkin). She tries to recruit him for the scheme of her own - elimination of Grimes and take-over of his business empire. Problem for Crowe is in the fact that he too has hidden agenda.

Based on the script by mystery author Ross Thomas (adapted from his novel), Bad Company has very intelligent and realistic plot that tries to portray the world of industrial espionage and white-collar crime with maximum of plausibility. In Damian Harris' hands this portrayal is cold and dark - hardly any character in this film is someone the audience should root for, since corruption and betrayal seem to be norm rather than deviation in that world. Harris underlines his distance from the characters by staging their morally reprehensive actions in ultra-modern Vancouver sets and dressing the protagonists in stylish costumes by Charles De Caro and Richard Shissler. All that is shot by famous cinematographer Jack N. Green and accompanied by Carter Burwell's very effective musical score. However, despite such talents, Harris can't overcome the main problem of Bad Company - fact that the audience couldn't care less for protagonists and their problems. The cast, which features some respectable characters actors like David Ogden Stiers, Spaulding Gray and Frank Langella play their roles very well, but those playing protagonists lack passion and even the potentially steamy sex scene featuring Fishburne and Barkin is nowhere near its true erotic potential. Bad Company with its complex plot and nihilism might remind the audience of 1970s when such kind of thrillers were in fashion, but the talents behind this film guarantee that the this film, despite its flaws, could be appreciated even by the audience that is not particularly nostalgic towards that period.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on June 5th 2003)