Get Hard (Etan Cohen)

[Henry Gale]

IMDb / Wiki

[Henry Gale]

Studiously unremarkable. Every scene seems telegraphed from comedies of decades past, not just from its own dull mechanisms. It has a few memorable laughs, because I'm not sure how something with either Ferrell and Hart in even their own worst vehicles don't manage to bring out their talents, so that's not a surprise, but the fact that they work so well off of each other without often being given anything particularly funny to do is staggering and beyond disappointing. Especially when this all comes from a pitch concocted by Ferrell and Adam McKay with at least some drafts penned by Key & Peele showrunners Ian Roberts and Jay Martel. The only other credited factor in the writing is Etan Cohen, who also ended up directing, so you'd think the blame would be 100% on his shoulders, but the guy's other key film credits are co-writing Tropic Thunder and Idiocracy, and this movie can't even scrape at their throwaway jokes.

The whole thing just feels so dated. If it wasn't for a scene that involved FaceTime and mayyybe other modernisms along the way, I'd honestly think this script was dusted off the shelf at the studio untouched from so many movie-making climates ago if I hadn't known otherwise. Its "edge" feels transplanted in rotation by the sort of stuff you'd see in C-level versions of '70s/'80s black/white buddy movies, '90s hood comedies, or early 2000's gross-out stuff in the wake of American Pies and the like. The ending feels exactly like my memory of Fletch's ending, and the rest doesn't even have that amount of definition to compare to older memorable movies. It's a pastiche of greatest hits from not-great movies. But at least there's a scene where Ferrell's character watches a late night talk show (Spin the wheel aaand, Fallon gets it this time) skewering his headline-making troubles, forcing him into a deeper emotional slump. That's never been done before!..

With the already much-contested racial and homosexual fuel-devices, which I honestly didn't find all that offensive because of how cartoonishly and weakly that stuff aims. The "racist" stuff is stuff like one-dimensional gangster stereotyping and even its predictable subversions, and the homophobia stuff is lame, dumb representation of things like straight guys ending up getting hit on (and not caring for it!) or a scene where Ferrell, to prepare for prison, forces himself to give a man a blow job WHICH HE DOES NOT WANNA PUT NEAR HIM. And then "[It's funny because they say things that sound gay in front gay people without realizing]!" jokes. And then there's similar situations where they say stuff about "getting hard" like the title! Yawn.

Alison Brie's character is basically just a gold digging sex object, and she doesn't even get the sort of redemptive twist or glimmers of sincerity from the script that the other stereotypical characters are afforded. The great Ron Funches is wasted (if only because this is the first time I've seen him in a film role and they didn't do him the owed courtesy of a starring role), as is T.I. (which is something I'd never think I'd have to say about a movie), and the rest of the roles are filled by people like Craig T. Nelson and Paul Ben-Victor doing exactly what, again, other movies and work by them has dictated for them here.

If this movie is successful, then I hope it at least paves the way for a better Ferrell/Hart movie, since it's them that keep the thing together. It's halfway decent for the laughs it does manage, but not worth the headache of the annoying stasis of both social and filmic progressiveness it embodies.

*½ / 3.8

[D_Davis]

Do you see every movie, just because it's a movie to see?

[Henry Gale]

Haha well, it helps in cases like this when they're free, the screenings tend to take place in pretty central locations, friends who want to join up after work on a weeknight can do so easily because of these factors, etc.

Actually not sure I've paid for anything I've made a thread for this year. Not that I wouldn't have eventually bought tickets for things like Kingsman and Jupiter Ascending if I hadn't won early stuff.

But I also do like Ferrell and Hart enough (despite never really watching the latter's big screen endeavours) to see this, despite already knowing the reception wasn't exactly on the positive side.

[D_Davis]

Hehehe.

Whenever I see a movie thread in here and think, "who the hell would watch that?" there is almost always a well-written review from Henry Gale.

[Henry Gale]

Well thanks, but when I do get lazy, I can always rely on TGM to pick up the slack for everything else!

I was *this* close to going to the Insurgent premiere here (Match Cut's sweetheart Jai Courtney was there!), but then I realized even I couldn't care enough to go (despite the rest of the cast they managed for it) and passed them along.

Back to Get Hard though, it's weird that I didn't like the movie but now find a lot of the jokes funnier in the TV spots since seeing it. (Unsurprisingly another case where there's heavily advertised gags that aren't in the actual movie too.) They also somehow got away with a "dual hand-jobs" punchline in primetime. So that's.. admirable?

[MadMan]

Henry Gale is here to warn us away from stuff like this heh.

[Dukefrukem]

Not funny. Except Will Ferrell sucking cock in slow-mo.

[Henry Gale]

Not funny. Except Will Ferrell sucking cock in slow-mo.

Wait, does this happen in the Unrated cut or something?

In the theatrical version he just gets close but kinda just slips and falls towards Matt Walsh (right?), making it clear he didn't go through with it and then it cuts to him abruptly deciding to leave.

Either way I'd hate to think either version of it was a highlight. The movie isn't good, but it has some funny stuff in it.

[Dukefrukem]

Wait, does this happen in the Unrated cut or something?

In the theatrical version he just gets close but kinda just slips and falls towards Matt Walsh (right?), making it clear he didn't go through with it and then it cuts to him abruptly deciding to leave.

Either way I'd hate to think either version of it was a highlight. The movie isn't good, but it has some funny stuff in it.

Yeh it never enters his mouth, but his forehead goes right into the flaccid penis.