Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart have teamed up together for their latest comedy project called 'Get Hard' with enough double entendres for two movies. There are a couple of similarities from 'Trading Places' and 'Nothing To Lose' here in 'Get Hard', but nothing really seems genuine or charming enough to remember this film much beyond two minutes after viewing it. Etan Cohen (not to be confused of the Coen Bros.) steps into the director's seat for the first time, but has written screenplays such as 'Men In Black III', 'Tropic Thunder', and 'Idiocracy'. Clearly, he has some writing talent, but with 'Get Hard', it seems like he just let Ferrell and Hart do their own thing, which can be outrageously funny at times, but can also run off on long tangents, which often happens with this movie.
This movie survives and fails by its overdone racial, gender, and sexual humor, all of which has been done many times before this film. It's a tired and exhausting trope with these new comedies, however Hart and Ferrell's chemistry is quite good. The setup is with James King (Ferrell), an extremely wealthy investment banker who is as white bred as they come. He lives in a giant house with his materialistic fiancée Alissa (Alison Brie) and works at a large investment firm where his boss Martin (Craig T. Nelson) is also his future father-in-law.
Things look good for James until the authorities arrest James at work for securities fraud and embezzlement. He sticks to his guns that he is innocent and was framed, but the judge gives him ten years in prison. Now James has 30 days until he has to report to prison, and being the guy he is, won't last a day in jail. That's when he enlists the help of the black guy who washes his car, Darnell (Hart) for help, because according to James, 1 out of every 3 black people will end up in jail at some point.
What kind of help does James want from Darnell, who secretly has grown up in the suburbs, far from any street gangs? It's the kind of help that will make James "get hard" or get tough enough so he will be able to avoid rape and murder in prison, which is apparently all that happens when doing hard time, according to to these two characters. So over a few montage scenes of physical training, shoving things in your rectum, and a gay brunch out on the town where oral sex is highly likely, we see Darnell toughen up James.
That is until Darnell finally believes that James is innocent and tries to help him clear his name. Nothing in this movie really makes any sense. Everything is over-the-top and tries to hard to be funny, outrageous, and vulgar. I think certain people will try to say this is homophobic and somewhat racist, but I disagree. These are comedians who are using the stereotypes for comedy, but never in a hurtful way. It's all in good fun, but it outstays it's welcome early on. The only thing that matters with this film are Ferrell and Hart, as every other plot device and character are only given a couple of minutes of screen time with no real resolution or point to why anything is happening on screen.
'Get Hard' is the product of two very talented comedic actors who made a movie where they basically have no script and given free reigns to just riff one joke off another for two hours. There are some minor laughs and at least one scene that has Ferrell literally on his knees, deciding on whether or not to go all the way in, but it's not enough to make the entire film memorable or even that good.
This movie survives and fails by its overdone racial, gender, and sexual humor, all of which has been done many times before this film. It's a tired and exhausting trope with these new comedies, however Hart and Ferrell's chemistry is quite good. The setup is with James King (Ferrell), an extremely wealthy investment banker who is as white bred as they come. He lives in a giant house with his materialistic fiancée Alissa (Alison Brie) and works at a large investment firm where his boss Martin (Craig T. Nelson) is also his future father-in-law.
Things look good for James until the authorities arrest James at work for securities fraud and embezzlement. He sticks to his guns that he is innocent and was framed, but the judge gives him ten years in prison. Now James has 30 days until he has to report to prison, and being the guy he is, won't last a day in jail. That's when he enlists the help of the black guy who washes his car, Darnell (Hart) for help, because according to James, 1 out of every 3 black people will end up in jail at some point.
What kind of help does James want from Darnell, who secretly has grown up in the suburbs, far from any street gangs? It's the kind of help that will make James "get hard" or get tough enough so he will be able to avoid rape and murder in prison, which is apparently all that happens when doing hard time, according to to these two characters. So over a few montage scenes of physical training, shoving things in your rectum, and a gay brunch out on the town where oral sex is highly likely, we see Darnell toughen up James.
That is until Darnell finally believes that James is innocent and tries to help him clear his name. Nothing in this movie really makes any sense. Everything is over-the-top and tries to hard to be funny, outrageous, and vulgar. I think certain people will try to say this is homophobic and somewhat racist, but I disagree. These are comedians who are using the stereotypes for comedy, but never in a hurtful way. It's all in good fun, but it outstays it's welcome early on. The only thing that matters with this film are Ferrell and Hart, as every other plot device and character are only given a couple of minutes of screen time with no real resolution or point to why anything is happening on screen.
'Get Hard' is the product of two very talented comedic actors who made a movie where they basically have no script and given free reigns to just riff one joke off another for two hours. There are some minor laughs and at least one scene that has Ferrell literally on his knees, deciding on whether or not to go all the way in, but it's not enough to make the entire film memorable or even that good.