Die Hart

No pun intended - just the other day I was talking with a friend and we thought "any movie that has a variant, an idea of a famous person/actor in it, is good ... well at least the ones we watched, right?" ... and it was right up to that moment. We were talking about Nic Cage playing Nic Cage (well a version of himself) and certainly John Malkovich ... even JCVD (or Jean Claude van Damme for you) is just amazing.

Well this movie is anything but ... but instead of going low (I would have given this a solid 6 to be honest), I thought ... well this has Nathalie Emmanuel in it ... so I'll go high(er) than that. I hope you can bear with me. And the movie is kind of fun - it may have certain people and call certain people by their rightful name ... and then it has John Travolta ... being someone else than himself. Well character name wise ... he could be as crazy in real life, right? I am just kidding of course ... good performance by him too.

Still way over the top - you have to dig it, to love it. Talking of loving it - where was the Rock? All that name calling, but no dice? Would have been fun - on the other hand, he would have stolen the sunshine from all others involved I reckon ... well there is the sequel so ... maybe there? (no is the answer in case you don't want to check for him there)

Kevin Hart is one of those actors/comedians who does well in the sidekick role, but struggles to lead an entire movie. Die Hart makes fun of this dynamic as well as poking fun at Hart's image and acting abilities. Its also the reason the move doesn't quite work, ironically.

Kevin Hart plays...well, Kevin Hart. He becomes upset with the image of himself as a short sidekick who is just there to be the comic relief. He wants to be seen as an action star. When a guerilla tactics director (Jean Reno) offers him an action role, but only if he agrees to attend an rogue action camp, Hart agrees. The camp is run by Ron Wilcox (John Travolta) who is, lets say, slightly mad. The methods Ron uses to teach Kevin to be the hero are both dangerous and outrageous. Soon, a second actor, Jordan (the lovely Nathalie Emmanuelle) joins the camp and becomes Kevin's classmate. Even Josh Hartnett has a cameo as himself, a former graduate of Ron's acting school. Milana Vayntrub (the AT&T spokesperson) has a small role as a talk show host.

The fun in the movie is that Hart really is thought of as just a comedic sidekick. The fact that he is willing to mock his image is both redeeming and funny. There are some genuine laughs in this film, notably the early scene of Hart melting down during an interview on the live morning talk show as well as the outrageous stunts Ron makes him perform. The problem is the gimmick runs out of steam after a while and only Hart's sincerity and energy hold it together. The "secret" revelation of what is really going on is telegraphed a mile ahead, but its still entertaining. Still, this is a decent 84 minutes of insanity that was well worth the time.

I have nothing but love for Kevin Hart, but realistically this is what happens when you do run an empire and you trying to do everything. You simply can't give everything 100%. This is 20% of his energy and quality and another film in the last few that shows the lack and effort. The story is an extreme stretch once or gets further into it. The acting is very poor and surprisingly John travolta is the weakest one. Clearly showing if you take long breaks from your craft it does take it toll. Basically Amazon wanted a film entice people and the through alot of money at Kevin and his brand to ensure it gets that "Kevin harts in it, surely it's decent". But a very poor film overall. I would rather Kevin go away for a few years with the films and come back and bring back something he was able to really put his effort in. Cannot recommend it, tje only positive is that they kept it under 1hr 30.

When I sat down to watch "Die Hart", I have to admit that I figured it was just going to be another of those assembly line mass produced movies that Kevin Hart has a tendency of spewing forth by the dozen. But still, I opted to watch the movie and give it a fair chance, on the account of it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, nor actually ever heard about.

But seeing the cast list for the movie, I must admit that my curiousity was tickled, because they definitely had quite the cast ensemble for the movie, with the likes of Nathalie Emmanuel, Jean Reno, Josh Hartnett and John Travolta.

I have to say that writer Derek Kolstad definitely delivered a script for the movie that turned out to be surprisingly good. I was genuinely entertained throughout the 84 minutes that the movie ran for. So I am glad that I opted to sit down and watch Kevin Hart play himself in this spoof of a movie.

There was a lot of action and comedy throughout the course of the movie, and director Eric Appel was good at mixing the two elements into a great combination, and that made for a very enjoyable and watchable movie.

My rating of "Die Hart" lands on a six out of ten stars.

A movie that delivers exactly as expected. Kevin Hart is perfectly cast as Kevin Hart - he delivers the completely unfunny nuances of Kevin Hart perfectly.

Almost a laugh an hour, the movie is well paced. The action sequences lack action and the comedy sequences lack comedy. It's like watching a Kevin Hart "comedy" special. The laughs are all forced.

On the plus side, vegan Nathalie Emmanuel is - as always - very easy on the eye. And the fact that she doesn't mention veganism despite being handed jerky (huge spoiler, sorry) was a huge step in her acting career.

All in all, it's a movie that was made by somebody and directed by somebody and had people in it who acted. Partially. 3/10.