Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain

'KEVIN HART: LET ME EXPLAIN': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

A stand-up comedy concert film featuring comedian Kevin Hart doing material from his 2012 'Let Me Explain' comedy tour. It was filmed in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden and directed by Leslie Small and Tim Story. The movie also features clips from other shows on Hart's tour as well. If you're a fan of Kevin Hart's stand-up comedy you'll probably enjoy the movie but if you're not in to his comedy style (like me) than you probably won't get a kick out of it (it's as simple as that).

The movie opens with Kevin Hart talking to his friends at a party trying to explain his relationship troubles and current success. As he becomes frustrated with trying to explain himself he gets the idea of doing a show at Madison Square Garden where he can explain himself to everyone. He then rushes to a show there right away. The film shows clips of other concerts on his tour before playing the Madison Square Garden show in it's entirety.

I like Kevin Hart in movies, I think he's a very funny and likable actor, but seeing his stand-up comedy for the first time (in this movie) I was not impressed. I think he talks too fast and acts too much like a spaz to be relatable at all. His jokes are OK but nothing 'laugh out loud' hilarious. To be fair I'm not a big fan of most stand-up comedy in general; there are very few comedians who can really make me laugh. So I wouldn't say Hart is much worse than anyone else. I wasn't impressed with this film though.

Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-D0yOH-Zx4

Bad language, disrespectful use of tasteless descriptive words is what this mans entire act is based upon...but not a single funny joke or funny story/tale etc!

Kevin Hart to me, when I first saw him, had what I think is a comedians face and it made me laugh. After I saw him in his films I realized the full truth in the term, "Looks can be deceiving", as I learnt that he is not at all what I would class as a comedian. I later watched all his stand up comic releases to make sure if I had gotten it right...I had. He was still terrible!

He is in the same foul mouthed, disrespectful and offensive category as the disgusting Eddie Murphy; IMHO. Using the 'F' word continuously and spouting the words bitches and ni**er constantly is just not tasteful or adding anything to humour or comedy! His looking at life style of delivery is dull and dreary content and, he is obviously not seeing life as the rest of us. I have found Americans to have no real sense of what comedy is and they just laugh at anything; especially foul mouthed comedy acts who never actually tell a joke or a funny story.

The only American comedian I find to be hilarious - without any foul language or descriptive names rudeness - is Gabriel Iglesias. He is one of the worlds best, IMHO!

Kevin Hart's Let Me Explain is an interesting conundrum.

On one hand you have another great hour of comedy from one of the better stand-up comics in the business today.

But on the other hand we have a muddled production with choppy editing, sloppy directing, and poor sound mixing that prevents this comedic movie from aging with the greats like Raw, Live on the Sunset Strip, and Himself.

What also hurts Let Me Explain is the short running time, the extremely egotistical preshow, and the failed skit in the beginning of the entire thing. If Hart can simply manage to stretch his material a little longer and delete all the extra fluff then he would be a little closer of reaching the comedic Rushmore of Pryor, 80s Murphy, Rock, and my main man George Carlin. He still has a ways to go though.

If you are a Kevin Hart fan, then you will not be disappointed. He once again spits out quick funny anecdotes, throws in a couple great catchphrases, and is never afraid of making fun of himself. He once again dedicates plenty of time to talking about women and relationship clichés; and these moments provide the biggest laughs because he takes the moments we can all relate to and stretch them into exaggeratory measures to successful jokes. He also has this likability factor that allows for him to control the crowd and never lose them, not for a single second.

And then we have all the technical issues. First off for a Madison Square Garden the audience was quite quiet. Was it the jokes not hitting? No, it's that the sound editing focused pretty much 95% on Hart, leaving the movie sounding quieter than it should. Part of a good comedic concert is listening to the audience react to the stories and collectively understand the verbal motions of one individual. Remember the epic battles Richard Pryor had against his audience on Sunset Strip? With this production staff we never would have truly enjoyed it.

As a matter of fact, it was tough to enjoy anything in the first fifteen minutes. The opening skit was uneven, just like the last one in Laugh at my Pain. And then it was followed by a sequence that should have been kept for the closing credits. The movie needed 20 minutes to truly get going. Jerry Seinfeld once said that usually comedians have only one minute to catch the audience otherwise he/she fails. The only reason why Kevin Hart was allowed 20 is because his material over the years has been consistently funny, and we all secretly knew that no matter how lame the material with his buddies are, it would all be forgiven once he steps up on the mic...even if the first act drags miserably.

But Kevin seriously, drop your friends. They may have supported you, but that doesn't mean squat if it hinders your movies.

One of Kevin Hart's older stand up comedy special. In comparison to his other special released earlier this year- Irresponsible, Let Me Explain is quite entertaining and far better.

This special starts off rather slow with about the first 20 minutes or so of a skit than a documentary type feature showing Kevin at his tours. But then the actual stand up routine begins. It gets off slow but eventually gets funnier. He had a good act at creating or reciting stories in his stand up than turning them into jokes. This stand up is funny at parts, somewhat repetitive but overall decent if you are a fan of Kevin Hart.

I felt ripped off when comedian Kevin Hart said "thank you and good night" and abruptly ended his routine. I should have waited for this to show up on cable or the bootleg (just kidding about the bootleg). I paid money for a 75-minute stand-up comedy movie whose first 25 minutes feature no stand-up comedy whatsoever. Minus credits, that's ~45 minutes of jokes, several of which are only mildly funny, not his normally funny. The film opens with an unfunny party scene Hart shows clip after clip of his tours from around the world. Not ONE of these clips features Hart telling a single joke. Instead, it's him saying "thank you (fill in the location)" and just more clips of fans and Hart's entourage sleeping on a bus. It goes on so long that I almost walked out. I didn't need a Kevin Hart commercial to prove he was a big funny star. I knew this that's why I bought tickets to see his stand-up. I think Kevin Hart is hilarious; this just wasn't his best material. Hart used the N-word way too much for my taste, but that's the price you pay for a lot of black comedy. I guess they feel that appeals to their mostly urban crowd / audience.