A COUPLE OF MY FAVORITE INGREDIENTS for a dessert are chocolate and butter. Rarely have I come across a dessert with these two items included that was not delicious. The chocolate can be in the form of cocoa powder, chips, syrup, pudding or even crushed chocolate sandwich cookies. Those who know me know the dessert is the most important part of dinner. I do not want to say the entrée is just a formality to get to the dessert, but it comes close. Since I was a small boy, I always enjoyed having something sweet to eat after dinner. Chocolate has always been my “go to” food after a meal, but that does not mean I do not like other flavors. Being a texture and visual eater, I love the combination of flavors and texture. For example, I prefer brownies with nuts in them because I like having a bit of crunch when I am chewing. The same goes with chocolate chips. A good chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips is heavenly. There just are certain pairings that make perfect sense, whether they are familiar or something brand new; it just tastes damn good is all I can say.      THE IDEA OF PAIRING IS NOT solely something for desserts. The first thing that comes to mind are the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby road movies, like Road to Bali and Road to Rio. With one being the comedian and the other the straight man, they made a great pair. Another pairing that worked was Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis; they did several movies together besides doing stand-up comedy. One of my earliest memories was seeing an old black and white film with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant called Bringing Up Baby. There was something about that film that grabbed my attention. Maybe it was the interaction between the two movie stars or the antics that took place; but the memory of it has stayed with my all these years. When you get two celebrities together and it is obvious there is a connection between them that works, it usually has been encouraged by their management teams and/or film studios. One can see it is a winning formula all the way around because studios still try to pair up different actors for a movie project. Just look at the film franchise, The Expendables. Getting a group of Type A personality types in one room can always provide hours of entertainment. This is one of the reasons why I was intrigued to see this action, adventure comedy because of its pairing of two action stars from different genres.      WHEN A GROUP OF EMPLOYEES HE was escorting safely out of the country gets ambushed, a special forces soldier finds himself in the unusual position of working with someone who had similar training to himself but uses it for a different purpose. Can the two ever find a way to work together to get the kidnapped crew back? With John Cena (Vacation Friends, 12 Rounds) as Chris Van Horne, Jackie Chan (Rush Hour franchise, Iron Mask) as Luo Fang, Pilou Asbaek (Game of Thrones-TV, A Hijacking) as Owen Paddock, Rachel Holoway (Momentum, Ransom’s Law-TV) as Raider and Amadeus Serafini (Smiley Face Killers, Scream: The TV Series) as Henry Van Horne; my other curiosity was seeing if Jackie Chan’s character would be up to Jackie’s past fighting mode. The answer is yes, but it doesn’t look like Jackie did much if any of his physical demanding stunts. This was only one of many disappointments, I am afraid to say. I found the story to be a generic blueprint for these types of films where the hero must try to get someone/something out of a hostile territory while the villain tries to stop them. With a predictable script and poor special effects, this is a throwaway film. In other words, if you have nothing else to do then go ahead and watch it before you toss it away physically and/or mentally. Sadly, this was a forgettable pairing. There were outtakes during the ending credits.                       

1 ½ stars