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Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Movie Review: ‘Get Hard’

PATTI PERRET - WARNER BROS ENTERTAINMENT INC.
PATTI PERRET – WARNER BROS ENTERTAINMENT INC.

★★☆☆☆

Although Etan Cohen’s comedy “Get Hard,” starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart, has its funny moments, it will not be something that makes you belt out laughing. It is not particularly painful to watch, but it also is not particularly special. The mediocre screenplay — written by Jay Martel and Ian Roberts — and plot is partially salvaged by the Ferrell-Hart combo. Their comedic delivery makes the movie bearable, while the rest of the film remains truly unimpressive.

The comedy follows James King (Will Ferrell) as he toughens up for a life behind bars. King is a wealthy investment banker who gets arrested for embezzlement. He is sentenced to ten years in San Quentin and fears he will not survive, and so he seeks the help of his car washer, Darnell (Kevin Hart), to train him for this new life. James assumes Darnell has gone to prison before because of his race and supposedly low economic standing.

The plot is a little disjunctive — it takes a bunch of situations you would not want to be in and strings them together to show how King takes 30 days to “get hard” for prison. The humor comes from the fact that it is not just King who does not know what he is doing, but Darnell as well. The film takes the typical “fish out of water” plot and adds some more humor to it by transforming it into two fish out of water, with one just pretending he knows what he is doing, and the other lacking the common sense to realize he is being duped.

While King and Darnell become good friends and care for each other, King never acknowledges that he held absurd prejudices and that through becoming friends with Darnell, he changed his misconceptions. The film pokes fun at the stereotype of a poor, black ex-convict by making Darnell a standup, hardworking, polo-wearing dad. Yet the film also plays into many of those same stereotypes in the scenes with Darnell’s cousin Russell (T.I.), who is presented as a gang leader with thuggish friends.

Imitations provide most of the humor in the film. James’ struggling attempts to imitate a prison tough-guy provide for Ferrell with a chance to shine comically. Ironically, Darnell is doing impersonations through his interaction with James, as he’s never actually been to prison; instead he present the different stereotypically types of individuals in prison: the tough black guy, the threatening Chicano, the sexual guy in the yard who wants to take James under his wing. This scene is funny but, like most of the jokes in the entire film, it is overdone and far too long.

Hart and Ferrell make a great comic pair and have a good on screen presence together. Darnell’s imitations of James throughout the film are some of the more humorous moments- especially when he imitates James laughing at his own Harvard business school joke.

When asked in an interview with The Hoya how the two of them got on board with the movie, Ferrell said, “The movie had been an idea that my friend Adam McKay and I had for a long time. When thinking about the casting, the first name we started with was Kevin’s. He helped in the development process with the script and his character.”

Ferrell and Hart’s characters are not only friends by the end of the film, but the pair is also friends in real life. They learned from one another by working on the film together. Hart commented on Ferrell’s character, saying, “Will is professional, humble, appreciates everything, and is grounded.”

Ferrell extended the compliment to Hart as well, saying, “Kevin and I share the same philosophy. We like to have a good time and we are thankful for where we are at professionally.”

The comedy makes light of serious topics such as prison violence and rape. While this is expected of a prison comedy, the punch lines begin to wear out and the jokes become a redundant and overdone by the end of the film.

Amidst the continuous jokes that mock stereotypes, there actually is an underlying social message. “The film lets us explore our differences, but through the chatter, we realize how similar we really are. The filter of comedy allows these perceived differences to be broken down,” said Ferrell.

Many of the African-American stereotypes that James has are proved to be false in the comedic confrontations his “training” puts him in. The strong point of the film is the casting of Ferrell and Hart. They make a great comic pair and have a good on screen presence together. Darnell’s imitations of James throughout the film are some of the more humorous moments- especially when he imitates James laughing at his own Harvard business school joke. When asked how the two of them got on board with the movie, Ferrell said “the movie had been an idea that my friend Adam McKay and I had for a long time. When thinking about the casting, the first name we started with was Kevin’s. He helped in the development process with the script and his character.” Ferrell and Hart worked great together and are not only friends by the end of the film, but friends in real life. They learned from one another by working on the film together. Hart commented on Ferrell’s character, saying “Will is professional, humble, appreciates everything, and is grounded.” Ferrell extended the compliment to Hart as well, saying “Kevin and I share the same philosophy. We like to have a good time and we are thankful for where we are at professionally.”

When asked “Are you hard enough Will?” Ferrell replied, “I am unfortunately no more qualified or confident that I would survive. My best strategy would be to not go.”

So there it is, the final message — you do not want to go to prison, and it does not take watching “Get Hard” to figure that out though. In order to prepare for making a prison comedy, Ferrell joked, “I watched the cooking channel. Looking back, it did not help me at all. If I had to do it over again I wouldn’t!”

Ferrell and Hart make a good pair, but they could have shown off their talents more effectively with a better story. “Get Hard” is bearable as the dynamic duo deliver funny lines, but after watching it once, there is little inclination to return to the excessive jokes about prison violence, rape, and stereotypical portrayals. If the film is worth seeing at all, it is only for the actors.

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