904. Get Hard (2015)

Starring: Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Alison Brie

Director: Etan Cohen

Running Time: 100 mins

Get Hard is an American film about a wealthy lawyer who is wrongfully convicted of fraud and embezzlement, and in the 30 days before entering prison, he enlists the help of a black man that he assumes has been convicted to help prepare him to survive in prison.

This is a completely idiotic, juvenile and occasionally offensive comedy that does drag quite a lot when it comes to its poorly executed story. However, it’s full of heaps of gags that can really make you laugh a lot, and although it’s obviously not the most intelligent or well-crafted film of the century, it’s an easy watch which is on the whole quite a bit of fun.

This film’s got a little bit of a bad rap from the critics for being more offensive than it is funny. Yes, there are a hell of a lot of racist and homophobic jokes here, and they may be offensive to some, but coming from the characters in this film, it’s a lot easier to buy into these types of jokes and, by not taking them too seriously, enjoy this film a lot more.

Basically, the type of comedy in this film is completely centred around slapstick, but it does pull off quite often throughout, in a similar way to Bad Neighbours. However, it’s not only mad slapstick that’s present here, because Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart do make quite a few funny jokes on their own, and their performances were entertaining enough to show that there is more to this film than extreme idiocy.

There is one problem with the comedy, however. Although it really is funny to watch a lot of the time, some gags do get dragged out for a little too long, and the whole ‘get hard’ joke is pretty repetitive throughout, suggesting that the writers here were really scraping the bottom of the barrel to keep this entertaining all the way through, and it does really show.

Along with that, the story isn’t actually that interesting. The characters are so cartoonish that whilst they’re funny to laugh at, they’re not at all interesting to follow, and that means that at the occasional bit where this film moves slightly away from extreme farce for a second, it is pretty boring to watch, meaning that there really isn’t much in this film apart from its laughs.

However, this sort of a film isn’t meant to make you think, it’s just there for a good barrel of laughs, and it pulls that off to some extent, although it can drag from time to time, so that’s why this gets a 6.7 overall.