By Andrea Fernandes
Features Editor
Kevin Hart trains Will Ferrell to “Get Hard” for jail in their new movie. Hopefully both are tough enough for the terrible reviews this movie has received and the bad critiques yet to come.
Etan Cohen directed the movie, and he is also known for directing movies such as “Men in Black 3,” “Madagascar” and “Tropic Thunder.”
The first couple minutes of the movie don’t do a good job of capturing the viewers’ attention. The movie starts with James King, played by Will Ferrell, crying hysterically. Maybe it was supposed to be a funny beginning…or maybe not.
The movie stars two men who are known to be funny: Hart and Ferrell. Knowing these men are in the movie make viewers expect to see a film overflowing with pure comedy. But that was not the case. “Get Hard” portrayed what wasted talent looks like for an hour and 40 minutes. The movie had so much more potential, especially because of its cast members. Kevin Hart’s character, Darnell Lewis, didn’t give Hart much room to be the great comedian he is. Movies like “Ride Along” and “Think like a Man Too” did a better job of displaying Hart’s true comic side.
In the movie, James’s gold-digging fiancé Alissa, played by Alison Brie, throws a huge engagement party for herself and her fiancé. The party is soon crashed by cops who arrest James for fraud and embezzlement. As the cops take James away, his future father-in-law insists that he will get James out, but it’s pretty obvious that he is somehow involved in James’s arrest. This might have been done on purpose to keep the viewers from thinking about if James is really
The movie joked about some racial stereotypes which were funny, but doesn’t distinguish itself from similar films. When Darnell knocks on James’s window to return his keys to him, James is extremely frightened and believes that because Darnell is African-American, he is trying to rob him. Hart explains he’s the owner of the car wash service James uses and goes on to proposing a deal that involved James giving him $30,000.
After James learns that he will be going to jail, he makes a deal with Darnell and agrees to pay him $30,000 if he can help him to toughen up so that he won’t be taken advantage of in prison. Darnell has never been to jail, in fact, he’s not any more ready for jail than James is, but he agrees to the deal and lets James believe that he knows what the jail life is all about.
The movie ends like most sappy, teach-me-a-life-lesson movies. Darnell helps James figure out how to prove that he is innocent after James considers joining a gang that will protect him while he’s in jail.
There is not much that is different about this comedy. Just like most other comedies, there are sexual, racist and social class jokes, which along with some nudity shown, makes the movie rated R. There was nothing unique about the plot. Any fans of Farrell or Hart would do well to avoid this failure of a farce.
