The 21 Jump Street movies have shown that the buddy comedies aren’t dead yet. Take two friends or two people who don’t know each other, put them together in a specific situation and see what they experience. Kevin Hart already did that earlier this year in The Wedding Ringer, but now also in Get Hard together with Will Ferrell.
Both men are know for their energy and their own specific style of comedy. Ferrell often behaves like a big kid without a lot of knowledge who because of that ends up in weird situations. Kevin Hart is well-known for his standup but also for playing characters who are quick to get angry and aren’t taken seriously by others. In Get Hard the two of them work together and the end result unfortunately isn’t as entertaining as you might expect.
James King (Ferrell) is a millionaire who lives in a beautiful home, is about to get married and will also become partner at the firm of his father-in-law. Life doesn’t seem to get any better than that, until he unexpectedly is arrested for fraud and faces jail. He’s afraid he won’t be able to survive San Quentin and searches for someone who can train him to become tough. With his wrong prejudices about other people he approaches Darnell (Kevin Hart), who regularly washes his car, as he assumes he must have served time already. Despite the fact that this isn’t the case, Darnell agrees to train him for a nice sum of money.
Both Ferrell as Hart do what they are good at and this does lead to a couple of funny moments. A scene in which James shows Darnell that he has an answer ready for every remark the other one makes is hilarious. But as you are watching this you can’t escape the feeling that you’ve seen all of this before (and better) in other films. The movie isn’t very original an regularly resort to gross out humour to get its audience to laugh. The story about the two of them trying to find out who has set up James feels rushed, with the rest of the movie consisting of the training. The result is a movie which you might enjoy a bit, but don’t expect too much.
I’m one of those that doesn’t think Kevin Hart is funny. I just see him as a whiny little child just wanting attention.
I can completely understand that he’s someone who might annoy some people 🙂
I can’t describe how annoying this movie looks to me. Sounds like I’m not missing much by skipping it!
No, I don’t think you’ll miss much if you don’t see it.