Get Hard

Get Hard (2015)

*** (out of 4)

Millionaire James King (Will Ferrell) gets ten years in prison for a crime he didn't commit but he still needs to learn how to survive on the inside so he hires Darnell (Kevin Hart) to teach him how to be hard. James thinks just because Darnell is black that he's been in prison but what he doesn't know is that Darnell is just as chicken as him when it comes to fighting.

GET HARD isn't a complete success but there's no question that the two leads are in good form and there are enough laughs that make this worth sitting through. If you're looking for some sort of masterpiece or high-art comedy then you're not going to find it here. There's nothing clean about this movie as it attacks all races, sexes and genders as it pretty much tries to offend anyone and goes for the most obvious and at times graphic jokes that it can. There was some pre-release controversy about some of the stereotype jokes but I think it's safe to say that everyone is insulted so it's fair game.

I think the best thing going for the film is the chemistry between Ferrell and Hart. Both of them work well off of one another and especially whenever the screenplay lets them down. In all honesty, there's not too much here that we haven't seen in other comedies about prison but the two actors take the material and make it much better than it actually is. One of the highlights in the film is when Ferrell is supposed to go up to some tough guys and start a fight. The terror that Ferrell gets across was just hilarious.

The formula is pretty predictable as is the outcome. With that said, I'd guess that only around sixty percent of the jokes actually work but there are enough big ones to make the film worth viewing.

It has it's moments, but all in all it could have been more, this duo works out quite well, but we never see the real power of them, they never really shine. There are scenes and lines here and there that work very well, but in the end it just gets a bit too superficial and delivers fast easy jokes that doesn't hit the mark for these two.

All is well that ends well and that it does, but we kind of figured that all from the beginning, in many ways this is way too obvious and does deliver what I expected, I know I sound very harsh and not very thrilled about this one and I am very disappointed :)

I did like the two main characters, both pretending to be someone they are not, and really working hard at getting everything to work out, while just being awkward and out of place.

James King (Will Ferrell) is a wealthy stockbroker with a seemingly perfect and enviable lifestyle (big house, hot girlfriend etc). However, things come to a head when evidence is found to show that King has committed acts of fraud and embezzlement. In order to make an example out of him and to show that 'rich people' won't get an easy ride, the judge sentences King to the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison at San Quentin which is one of America's toughest prisons. King isn't prepared for life in prison and based on a conversation that he has with Darnell (Kevin Hart) he makes the assumption that Darnell has been to prison before and King offers to pay Darnell $30,000 dollars to toughen up ready for prison life which King will be facing in the next 30 days. Being hugely in debt and for his family's sake, Darnell agrees to prepare King for life in prison (even though he's never been in prison in his life!!!).

Both Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart have both been hit and miss actor's in my book and therefore I approached this film with some caution and actually feared the worst. However, after watching it I thought it was much better than I expected it to be - although it isn't without it's fair share of problems....

The storyline is fairly generic and there's definitely a whiff of Trading Places about it (it only really steals one aspect from that film rather than feeling like a 'rip-off' of that film). If you're expecting to see much originality in the material then you're going to be a little disappointed - quite a bit of the material is recycled prison clichés and much of this is witnessed when Darnell puts King through his toughening up boot-camp.

Despite some of these problems there were some parts of the film that got some big laughs from me; I couldn't help but laugh at the scenes where King tries to pick fights with people at the park (with one scene where he picks on an old man and gets his ass kicked). I also loved the part where Martin (Craig T Nelson) is talking about how he built his successful business with just a computer, hard work and an $8,000,000 loan from his dad - it doesn't sound that funny when it's put in writing, but the way Nelson delivers the gag does make it funny. It's stuff like this that helps to take the edge of the cruder stuff that is witnessed at other moments in the film.

Another strength with this film lies with the performances of Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. The former is actually very good at acting as a 'whiny' jerk (perhaps too good), but in a film like Get Hard this style of acting works to his advantage and it really is hard not to laugh at some of the things that he says and does here. Hart is not someone who I've been too kind to in the past, but I think that I've never really seen him in a role that I've felt that he can put his own stamp on (until now). In some ways I thought that Hart steals the show here and in some ways seeing a much smaller figure like Hart being physically dominant over someone as large as Ferrell somehow made the scenario funnier to me. Both these actors share brilliant chemistry together and in some ways their physical humour and terrific performances overcome the fairly weak story.

I've been generally positive with this film so far but I think it's important to draw your attention to some weaknesses with the film. Whilst it clearly relies on race issues to carry it in the early stages it always feels palatable (a basic misunderstanding based on 'race' is what lead to King making his assumption). This, for me, was tolerable in order to set the story up, but later in the film it starts to go off the rails a little bit by providing us with some forced and unnecessary moments (I felt that the scenes with The Crenshaws and The Alliances Of Whites) were a little too much and I don't feel that they were particularly necessary. It's also predictable and isn't funny often enough for me to be able to shout its praise from the rooftops.

With all that being said though, some of the material is funny, Ferrell and Hart are both excellent here and the chemistry between the two men is first-rate. It's not brilliant, but on the same note it was funny enough for me.

Get Hard is a comedy starring two of the funniest actors out there today, and having this duo of Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell you would think would make for an extremely funny movie, unfortunately it doesn't but it still had its fair share of good laughs. They had pretty good chemistry and most if not all of the good funny moments came from the interactions between the two of them. They played off the racial stereotypes for pretty much the entire film and as the film went on it got less funny and repetitive. The good moments of the film in terms of the comedy came in the middle of the film, thats where you have everyone introduced and the build up is over but you are also not yet exhausted by the repetitive jokes. In terms of their performances, there is nothing new here, it feels like they were both playing similar characters that they have played many times before in their previous films. But the characters did fit very well into the plot.

The plot of the film was a little predictable, but at the same time i wasn't bored of following the plot. It didn't feel like certain plot points happened in order to get a few quick jokes in, everything flowed pretty well and i was still interested in seeing what was going to happen next. There is not much else i can say about this film, there is nothing new to see here from Will or Kevin, but the film does provide with some good jokes and an interesting plot that can get you through the film fairly entertained. So i guess if you are a fan of either member of this comedy duo then you will enjoy seeing them together in this film. - 5/10

I wonder if what the critics don't like about this movie is that it is actually clever, funny and vulnerable. I am glad I resisted the critic reviews and saw it. The performances by all actors are genuine. And of course there is just enough physical comedy and absurdity to make it silly in a good way.

Don't listen to the crusty old curmudgeons its a fun movie to watch. Some of the jokes are actually intelligent and you have to know a little about what is going on economically and racially in the Country to really get them. The only thing that I find puzzling is in every movie that has biker gangs, they never seem to get them right. They always portray them cartoony that was the only thing that I found disinteresting and only because of aesthetics.

Its a cute comedy. Don't be turned away by the crusty critics