Name : Owen Gleiberman / Alias : Variety
It delivers - on some basic, giddy, turn-off-your-frontal-lobes level. It's an action-comedy utensil, like "Rush Hour" crossed with an old Arnold Schwarzenegger shoot-'em-up, with a few goofy added sprinkles of "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion."

Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
A shambolic high-concept farce that doubles as a cautionary tale of where studio comedies go wrong.

Name : Jon Frosch / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
It capitalizes on the chemistry between Hart and Johnson, who convey what seems like genuine delight in each other's company - something that gives this bromantic diversion a giddy kick.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Los Angeles Times
"Central Intelligence" is dumb in all the right ways, and also a bit smarter than you might expect.

Name : Barry Hertz / Alias : Globe and Mail
A buddy comedy that's pleasant enough without ever reaching the full comic heights that Johnson's casting implicitly promises.

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
Central Intelligence, a buddy action-comedy starring Kevin Hart and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, doesn't pack many big laughs, but it is likely to keep a smile on your face for the duration.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
Johnson and Hart actually do have potential as a comic duo - better than Ice Cube and Hart in the already stale Ride Along franchise - but Central Intelligence isn't smart enough to make the most of their pairing.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
It's a trip we've been on before. Johnson and Hart make the journey a little more pleasant than it could have been.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
"Central Intelligence" won't win any points for originality, but that doesn't make it any less funny.

Name : Bruce Kirkland / Alias : Toronto Sun
I like Central Intelligence, even when it is being stupid.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
With its canned, predictable action sequences and mirthless attempts at humor, it displays an ineptitude that is frankly shocking considering the talent involved.

Name : Joey Nolfi / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
The hows and whys of the quest at hand aren't exactly important, as Central Intelligence is far more concerned with squeezing its leading men together-often literally-and kicking back to enjoy the juice, and that's a wise move.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
Hart and Johnson make a terrific team, though it's the latter who really shines in this action-comedy.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
The blend of Johnson's laid-back hero-dudeness and Hart's whippet-fast comic timing should have been good fun. But somebody, alas, had an idea, though not a good one: Make Johnson the comedian and Hart the straight man.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
A mostly dumb but often weirdly sweet action comedy about bullies, high-school friendships and grown men who still love John Hughes movies. Oh, and who happen to be spies.

Name : Tom Huddleston / Alias : Time Out
There's literally nothing unloveable about Johnson's performance - think peak-form John Candy trapped in the body of, well, The Rock.

Name : Joe Dziemianowicz / Alias : New York Daily News
Yes, the appealing mismatched megastars earn their paychecks with game performances. But other than an occasional zinger hitting the mark, laughs are in short supply.

Name : Richard Brody / Alias : New Yorker
The window-smashing and car-crashing offer some giddy surprises, but the ridiculous yet bland gunplay is as generic as the setup.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
This has a pretty good laugh quotient as far as big-budget action comedies go.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
We're here for the Johnson and Hart show, and they deliver.

Name : Stephanie Zacharek / Alias : TIME Magazine
No one can steal the show from Johnson and Hart. Their dual rhythms, alternately laid back and hyperactive, end up in a glorious and ridiculous kind of syncopation, unicornlike in its rarity and oddness.

Name : David Sims / Alias : The Atlantic
If you're a fan of either Hart or Johnson's usual movie shtick, Central Intelligence is just about fun enough to recommend.

Name : Jeannette Catsoulis / Alias : New York Times
An odd-couple caper of staggering dopeyness that makes you long for the snap and sizzle of the buddy movies of the 1980s, "Central Intelligence" is a clean-out-the-fridge soup of celebrity cameos and C.I.A. confusion.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
"Central Intelligence" is one of those slick, gunplay-riddled, stupidly plotted, aggressively loud buddy movies - so formulaic and dumb, even if you see it you'll probably forget you've seen it by the end of the year.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : Village Voice
Central Intelligence won't blow you out of the theater, but you might be surprised at how well it works - how genuinely funny it is - given the familiarity of this concept.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
Johnson brings the funny. Underneath all that muscle, a comedy star is wrestling to get out, and he's finally emerged.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
Painless, strained, occasionally amusing, and utterly disposable - just another studio buddy comedy/action movie that forgot where it put the script.

Name : Matthew Lickona / Alias : San Diego Reader
The eventual resolution is entirely too neat 'n tidy in light of the (sometimes funny) crazy that precedes it: what began as a dark comedy finishes as a cheerful action drama.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
You go along for the ride because Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson promise something they can't deliver: a movie as funny as they are.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
Johnson and Hart are performers of trustworthy charisma, but their personal appeal hits its limits when they are recruited to perform in a film that is hard to sit through.

Name : Chris Klimek / Alias : NPR
What Central Intelligence lacks in depth or inventiveness, it makes up for in personality, steaming along on the robust comic rapport between Johnson and Hart.

Name : Alison Willmore / Alias : BuzzFeed News
The film has a firm grasp of Johnson's appeal as a leading man: He is Hollywood's most imposing ray of sunshine.

Name : Tirdad Derakhshani / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Central Intelligence is actually funny.