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The latest comedy from Kevin Hart (“Ride Along”) and Will Ferrell (“Anchorman 2”) gives hope to even the wimpiest people that they too can be tough. Besides that, “Get Hard” brings nothing new to the table of R-rated comedies and fails to soar to the level of its stars’ more recent films.
James King (Ferrell) has it all. He’s a super successful businessman who has just received a promotion and is engaged to his boss’ hot daughter (Alison Brie, “Community”). His car washer, Darnell Lewis (Hart) is struggling to provide a better life for his family to get them out of their bad neighborhood and put his daughter in a better school. When James is accused of embezzling money and sentenced to ten years in a maximum security prison, he hires Darnell to help him prepare for life as an inmate.
We soon learn the catch is that Darnell has never actually been to prison. James makes an inaccurate racial presumption (putting it lightly) that Darnell must be an ex-convict. Darnell needs the money that James is offering and so he decides to play along. Throughout the film, Darnell teaches James all that he “knows” on what it takes to survive prison.
The film has its hilarious moments (most of which were in the trailers) but a lot of the other jokes are not as funny. Most of Hart’s moments are great, but it’s Ferrell who at times fails to get nearly the kind of laughs Hart produces. While it’s fun to see Ferrell attempt to dress and talk like Lil Wayne, there are other cringeworthy moments that fall flat and don’t add anything to the overall story.
There is very little purpose of this film except to make fun of stereotypes concerning black people, rich upper class and prison inmates. The idea behind its story is fun and unique, but the result is not nearly as satisfying as it could have been. The film touches on themes such as family, true friends and self-confidence, but is too distracted by its overdone gags to explore anything deep.
