Get Hard

Warner Bros.

Without a doubt, the teaming up of Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart has the makings to be a strong comedic duo. Everybody is well aware of the work Will Ferrell has done over the past 15 years and how he has managed to stay towards the top when it comes to funny men on the big screen. On the other half of this duo, one could easily argue that, at the current moment, the man in that number one spot is Kevin Hart as nearly everything he has been a part over the past few years has found great success. So putting them side by side in the same movie should make for one extremely funny experience. On paper that is. But, using a popular sports term, they still have to play the game. The game being the actual movie they star in and the actual movie being Get Hard. Get Hard solely relies on Ferrell and Hart to make it funny but in doing so, proves that even the most entertaining men in the business need something to stand on.

Get Hard begins with introducing the audience to Ferrell and Hart’s characters along with the type of life they live. James King (Ferrell) is a successful hedge fund manager that has the extraordinarily big house and sexy fiancée (Alison Brie) to prove it. Then there is Darnell Lewis (Hart), a manager of a car washing service at the building James works at, who also happens to be struggling to find the needed funds to send his daughter to a better school. So when James is sentenced to ten years in a maximum security prison after he is falsely accused of embezzlement and is willing to pay Darnell 30,000 dollars to toughen him up for prison, as he assumes, because he is black, that he has been to prison, Darnell is quick to take the Job and has 30 days to complete the task.

As far as the type of humor that Get Hard attempts, if you are a fan of prison rape jokes then stop what you are doing and go watch this movie now as this is sure to be well worth your time and money. Yes, Get Hard is prison rape joke, after prison rape joke with some more prison rape jokes. Maybe the first two or three times it is semi-funny but just because you describe it differently or use a different tone does not keep it funny. To the scripts credit though, but not really, towards the end of the film, the "Get Hard" term is used as a double entendre. What a surprise.

Other than this, there is not much more to the script as it really only revolves around the concept that James does not want to get raped in prison. Yes, you could call it a lazy script as Ferrell and Hart are expected to carry the film by making several clever less jokes and plot points seem funny but to say there was no effort put into it would be wrong. It is obvious that lots of effort went into squeezing as many prison rape jokes in as possible and making sure that nobody gets in the way of Ferrell and Hart’s attempt to save the script. Even the lesser entries in both Ferrell and Hart’s body of works have a handful of characters that lend comedic support. Not here though. It is, for the most part, all Ferrell and Hart. Nobody else is given much of a meaningful role such as Craig T. Nelson as James’ boss or Alison Brie as his fiancée who are both given little screen time (on a side note, while on the subject of Ferrell and Nelson in the same movie, I’m still waiting for a Blades of Glory spin off focusing on Nelson’s Coach character). As far as humor goes, any other comedic moments not given to the two leads go to T.J. Jagodowski (the guy in the passenger’s seat in the Sonic commercials), a gay man a café James and Darnell go to, who at times out shines everyone with only a couple minutes on screen. T.I. could be considered the exception when saying that it’s just Ferrell and Hart as he is given more to do than anyone else other than them but still amounting to very little and nothing as far as humor goes.

If you have read any other reviews or even just happen to see any headlines regarding Get Hard, you were sure to notice claims of the film being offensive. Sure a lot of it could be considered offensive. Isn’t offensiveness at the foundation of several comedic situations? This film, along with countless other comedies over the years could be picked part when determining if they are offensive or not. For the most part, anything that can be considered offensive in Get Hard has been seen or heard before. I will say however, and maybe my eyes and ears have been harden to these things, the only thing that really stood out as offensive and way off base was a comment made by Darnell when toughening up James that suggest that gay men were easy or would always partake in a sexual scenario if given the chance. I’m sure this is not the first time that this type of offensive humor has been attempted but it just felt a little out of line.

It would appear that Get Hard is a laughless mess and although it is is closer to this than a thoroughly entertaining comedy, it is important to note that in between the bad is a little bit of good. The thing about Ferrell and Hart is that because of their charm and approach, they are able to make poor material somewhat bearable. And even though they are not on top of their game here, they still manage to provide a few laughs here and there. It’s just not enough though due to the lack of support provided to them, therefore causing Get Hard to be a less than average comedy that will surely find a place towards the bottom of both stars list of work.

Grade: D+

Review written by Brad Shawgo. Visit his blog, ShawGoesToTheMovies, for more great film reviews and movie posts.

Published on 6/2/2015 5:44:20 PM