Kevin Hart: What Now?

I love stand-up specials. I've loved Kevin Hart's stand-up specials so far, even though I have never found his "preshow" and "aftershow" sketches funny at all. He has some again and I gotta tell you, this was so incredibly boring, I barely remember what was it all about. When finally the show started, I got excited - this is where Kevin is powerful. He has a full stadium (!), a great stage, everything looks perfectly prepared. Then, 20 minutes after the start of the show, I realized I haven't even smiled once. I almost forgot I'm not alone in the theater because it was really, REALLY silent. Even the black people next to me were absolutely quiet and were shrugging at the "jokes" - and black people not laughing is a very sad thing for every black comedian.

His jokes were actually stories. 5-minute stories that started from nothing and went nowhere. After an incredibly unfunny 5-minute joke about a woman missing a shoulder, the first 4 people left the theater. And not because it was a dark joke - but because it wasn't funny at all. Kevin was yelling on his golden mic, making poses, yelling again, but was just as funny as a circus clown and that was kinda sad.

Kevin Hart has obviously lost his touch with reality and the money he made got to his head. He was performing as the greatest comedian ever, while he was not even average. If he started out with jokes like these, he'd be getting booed off the stage in 3 minutes.

I have left a theater prematurely only twice in my entire life and this was the third time. It was unbearable. I might download this from somewhere when it comes to DVD just to see how it ends but I ain't paying more for it. Better go to your local comedy club and see an open mic. Most of them will have way better jokes, for sure.

This stand up special is not very good. I think it probably is just as simple as Kevin Hart having done too much stuff too quickly and too recently.

I have liked his stuff in the past including his stand up comedy appearances and also his early movie roles. But his more recent stuff including starring movie roles in lesser quality movies and especially his stand up comedy are just not up to the same quality I'm used to seeing from him.

I hope he takes some time off to write and develop some stronger stuff instead of just churning stuff out this quickly in the future, to bring the quality up.

Watched this with my movie theatre-working friend and his nephew who managed to telegraph many of the jokes Kevin Hart was telling at the concert depicted in this film beforehand. There was also a prologue and epilogue concerning Hart's James Bond-like adventure with Halle Berry that was amusing in spots if not hilarious. His concert was mostly stream-of-consciousness about his family, his girlfriend, and his old friends. Many of it was pretty raunchy with some good laughs scattered throughout. The concert was filmed in Philadelphia in front of a huge crowd at a football stadium. That crowd is seen at various points laughing it up at Hart's material. Overall, Kevin Hart: What Now? was mostly a good time for me and my friends.

Kevin Hart: What Now is a really funny comedy special that's padded to feature length by some unwanted scripted sketches which bookend it. Halle Berry is always a welcome presence who exudes grace effortlessly and Don Cheadle is having fun but these scenes are undoubtedly filler. However, there's still a few good jokes in these bits thanks to a scene parodying The Equalizer and a neat gag involving subtitles.

The special itself is actually more than funny enough to sustain its run time. The material can get surprisingly personal when he talks about his greatest shame surrounding his sex life and the best moments come from the stories that sound unreal. He returns to some of his biggest punchlines a bit too much in this one but those bits work more often than they don't and the backdrops changing to match his jokes works with them.

The intro sequence for the "Kevin Hart: What Now?" stand-up comedy show was actually the best thing about the entire show.

Why is that?

Well, because Kevin Hart wasn't really overly funny during the stand-up routine. Sure, there were a laugh to be had here and there, but it just wasn't an all together funny show from start to end.

Some of the jokes were just dragged on for far too long, which sort of killed off the momentum and the joke itself.

Kevin Hart does, however, look to be very natural on the stage. I had expected more than what this turned out to be, to be honest. And with having watched this 2016 stand-up show, then I am hardly inspired to go watch any of his other shows.