“Get Hard” is the latest from comedy geniuses Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. James King (Ferrell) is a millionaire wrongly convicted of fraud and embezzlement who attempts to prep for the hardship of prison life with the help of his car washer, Darnell Lewis (Hart). James assumes that because Darnell is black, he has been to prison and can help him survive prison life. This begins the two-hour onslaught of racist humor that might be considered comedy to young high school boys. During the course of Ferrell’s training, he figures out who is responsible for the fraud and tracks him down with the help of Hart.
My biggest issues with this movie are the crude race jokes. The first time James meets Darnell, he thinks he is being robbed because Darnell is black, not because he is actually threatening. James dresses in outlandish, stereotypical “gangster” wear to blend in with Darnell and his family. In addition to the obviously racist elements, the film makes lazy cracks about James getting raped in prison, keeping weapons in his butt, over sexualizes the few female characters, and includes a montage of fight scenes where Ferrell gets beat up countless times. The film is not well written by any means and runs a little too long for the content. Like most movies of this caliber, it’s pretty predictable as far as the end of the movie goes. Ferrell and Hart are known for being funny guys, but the movie does little to highlight their talents.
“Get Hard” is perfectly summed up by a single word – lazy. Audiences may feel like they have seen this kind of movie before. It is certainly not original or groundbreaking cinema. The jokes are offensive and crass and hardly funny in most instances. Rotten Tomatoes gave this film a 31 percent, and it only made $33.8 million last weekend.
“Get Hard” is rated R for pervasive crude and sexual content and language, some graphic nudity and drug material.
