Renald Loh
Ah, we were really looking forward to this one. Surely a comedy with Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart as leads will make me “lmfao”. As it turns out, a lousy screenplay can undermine the most talented of actors.
Director Etan Cohen directs yet another comedy, after his generally well received attempts with Tropic Thunder (2008), Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) and Men in Black 3 (2012).
Harvard graduate-turned-millionaire James King (Will Ferrell) is wrongly convicted of multiple accounts of fraud and sentenced to 10 years of jail in a maximum-security prison, San Quentin. He engages the help of Darrell Lewis (Kevin Hart), whom he racistly mistakes as an ex-convict (just because he’s black?!), to assist him in surviving his upcoming life behind bars. Yes, that includes learning to perform oral sex on guys to prevent being raped.
After a hopeless few weeks of futile toughening up training, they decide to approach both black and white gangs to ask for protection. James manages
to gain the trust of Russell (T.I.), the leader of the black gang, by using his weighty Wall Street knowledge to earn them a couple o’ bucks. He ends up not needing their help anyway as he and Darrell embark on a quest to expose the real crook who had set him up.
We were not expecting the most thrilling storyline ever. In fact, we were prepared to forgive a poor plot if we came out of the cinema with jaws sore from guffaws. There were a couple of funny scenes of course; the prison enactment and appearance at a gay bar to practise his oral sex skills, in particular, tickled our funny bone. Hart’s 3-minute long skit of pretending to be a Mexican drug dealer, White gangster and a raging homosexual in prison all at once, was comedic gold.
The acting was great but the problem is it felt like acting. Good movies engross the audience to the point that we temporarily believe that the actors are actually who they are portraying. It didn’t feel like this here. This was largely due to what felt like lazy writing. The dialogue was filled with clichés and some predictable racist, sexual jokes that played on the movie title “Get Hard”.
It felt more like a stage improv play with the raw and shaky cinematography, shoddy editing and lack of music during crucial emotional moments. For example, in one of the conversations between the two protagonists, we caught Hart’s mouth movements not quite matching his voice. Because of this, the substandard plot was more glaring than it should have been.
On the bright side, we got to see exceptional short cameos from John Mayer and Jimmy Fallon playing themselves, as well as some funny one-liners you’ll find yourself repeating on your ride home. On the backside bad side we got to see Will Ferrell’s bare backside.
Credit to the guy who casted both Ferrell and Hart. Although the film wasn’t as good as it could have been, we’ll still jump at the chance to see both of them share headlines again. If you’re looking for a couple of cheap laughs, this isn’t a bad choice.
[xrr rating=2/5 display_as=textstars label=”Our Rating:”]
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Information
Release Date: 26 March 2015
Runtime: 100 minutes
Language: English
Censorship Rating: M18
Genre: Comedy
Director: Etan Cohen
Main Actors: Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Alison Brie, T.I., Craig T. Nelson
Photos courtesy of: Warner Bros. Singapore