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

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

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

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

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

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

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 : 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 : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
In keeping everything so polite, The Intern, while being a pleasant and watchable movie, is also entirely ephemeral. Maybe that's why, like Meyers' other films, The Intern will likely be so re-watchable, too.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
This kind of unhurried, low-conflict story coming from a mainstream filmmaker might be more invigorating if not for the eventually wearying idealization of the De Niro character and the odd implications that come along with it.

Name : L.V. Anderson / Alias : Slate
Nobody does visually pleasing, occasionally funny escapist entertainment about goodhearted rich people trying their best to do the right thing better than Nancy Meyers.

Name : Stephen Farber / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
The movie offers more frustrations than rewards to discerning viewers of any age or gender.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
"The Intern" is bizarrely retrograde, implying that every working woman only needs a cuddly Yoda daddy to make it in the world of business. It's soft in the heart - and soft in the head.

Name : Cath Clarke / Alias : Time Out
The movie's ideas run out quickly, but De Niro is easygoing, and The Intern is indulgent good fun. Just don't go in expecting nutrition.

Name : James Rocchi / Alias : TheWrap
Considering the movie's fortune-cookie-style "insights" that old and young have much to learn from each other, it's only appropriate that De Niro and Hathaway's charms, and those alone, comprise the saving graces of "The Intern."

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
De Niro and Hathaway's charms plus a sparkling script make for feel-good fluff.

Name : Calvin Wilson / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
These days, it's tough to find a comedy that even aspires to sophistication. "The Intern" entertainingly fills that slot.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
The story isn't even contrived, it's ridiculous.

Name : Stephanie Zacharek / Alias : Village Voice
The spongy subtext of this and every Meyers movie is "We're being serious, but we're also being FUN!" No viewer must ever be made to think too much, feel too much, or be left out. She doesn't so much tell a story as lead a team-building exercise.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
The success of this film may ride entirely on the alchemy of these particular actors, but whatever is carrying it, "The Intern" gets there.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
"The Intern" may be predictable, but it's far from empty.

Name : Leah Greenblatt / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
The tone remains as plush and soft-cornered as one of Meyers' ubiquitous throw pillows (though it's also knowing enough to toss off a good joke about them).

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
In terms of comedic and dramatic content, The Intern is hit-and-miss. Notions about ageism and corporate prejudice against female CEOs are grazed but not explored in a meaningful or compelling way.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
"The Intern" feels a little bit like the tai chi exercises that Ben does in the park throughout the film - you look for something to react to and laugh at and maybe even shed a tear about, but you wind up pushing against a puff of air.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
Meyers' films have always been about basically decent people navigating life's various hurdles. Here, though, her characters have gone from "It's Complicated" to "It's Pretty Straightforward, Actually."

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
If only real life were like a Nancy Meyers movie.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
It's not much of a movie. But raging bull Robert De Niro, suited up to play for humor and heart, proves he can be a world-class charmer.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
There are a few good laughs, but they struggle to survive amid the syrupy score, overlit interiors, and smothering sense of middle-class entitlement.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
This clumsy comedy, written and directed by Nancy Meyers, turns an implausible but intriguing premise into a tale of generational collision that reflects dimly on old and young alike.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
"The Intern" is like one of those candies you put in your mouth that starts off tasting sweet - until it suddenly turns lip-puckering sour.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
The Intern degenerates into a series of monologues about ambition and relationships and having it all. As the speeches pile up, our goodwill dissipates, and so does the film's magic.

Name : Guy Lodge / Alias : Variety
It takes all the leads' considerable combined charm to forestall the aftertaste of the pic's smug life lessons and near-comically blinkered worldview.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
With some genuinely insightful dialogue, a number of truly funny bits of physical business, and small scenes allowing us to get know and like a half-dozen supporting players, The Intern grows on us from scene to scene, from moment to moment.

Name : Mark Olsen / Alias : Los Angeles Times
A better, funnier and more considered movie than much of what passes for nonfranchise studio filmmaking, even as it shows a world almost exclusively white, straight and upmarket.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
It spoon-feeds us vanilla fiction to the point of overdose.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
Meyers has wit and a solid sense of craft, but mainly she makes movies about high thread counts and comfy, pricey throw pillows.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
There's not much here story-wise. But when Meyers wants to write an involving scene with characters thinking and feeling the way humans think and feel, you want to applaud.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
"The Intern" is idiotic, unrealistic, Boomer wish fulfillment that has no business working on any level. I quite enjoyed it.

Name : Liz Braun / Alias : Toronto Sun
Only the impressive chemistry between Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway will keep you watching; we haven't even mentioned the painfully ageist sex jokes or the silly plot developments that unfold like sitcom padding.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
There'd be a lot less strife and starvation, disease and dread, if Nancy Meyers ruled the world.

Name : Kate Taylor / Alias : Globe and Mail
A movie that doesn't do justice to an invigorating premise.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Slight but charming, Nancy Meyers' "The Intern" almost goes terribly wrong in its first minutes, but quickly rights itself.

Name : Richard Brody / Alias : New Yorker
This earnest, effusive haut-bourgeois fantasy, by the writer and director Nancy Meyers, runs roughshod over rational skepticism with the force of her life experience.

Name : Manohla Dargis / Alias : New York Times
Mr. De Niro owns the movie from the moment he opens his mouth, and is staring into the camera and right at you. (Oh, yes, he's lookin' at you.) You can't look away, and soon you don't want to.

Name : David Sims / Alias : The Atlantic
Thanks largely to performances by De Niro and Hathaway, The Intern is a gentle, enjoyable fantasy-and certainly Meyers's best film in more than a decade.