I was looking forward to seeing Kevin Hart's new stand up, hoping that he would redeem himself after releasing multiple "buddy cop" movies in the recent years that ultimately are the same thing. Unfortunately I was only let down further with this film.
He lost me right off the bat when the first 15-18 minutes was his SNL monologue from when he hosted the show back in 2013. He added a few things to the bit, spoke as if it had just happened last week, and delivered it virtually the same way as he did three years prior. From then on he continued to degrade his wife by saying he'd leave if she became disfigured. Now I love dark humor, Anthony Jeselnik is one of my favorite comedians, but Kevin Hart just comes off as sleazy when he tries it. This might be due to the fact that it's directed towards his wife/fiancé (or whomever he is with at the time) or towards his younger son, people who he has a direct relationship with. Hart resorted to a lot of cheap lowbrow comedy this time around. He spent a solid 10 minutes talking about having sex with a pocket p****. After that he went into detail about how his body was not responding well to coffee and acted as a very strong laxative. I am not offended by anything he said, he just did not deliver his material in such a way that the raunchy and rude comedy he came up with would be well received. One thing that a good comedian can do is to refer to an earlier joke as a smaller punchline to a later joke. Doing this makes the audience feel as if they are in on an inside joke with the comedian and had you not heard the earlier joke you wouldn't get it. Sort of a "you had to be there" moment that makes it more personal. Hart attempts this and the first time he did it was pretty good, but after the 5th or 6th time he referred to an earlier joke, the moment was lost and so was the humor. Kind of like that one kid in school who says one thing that gets a laugh then continues to use the same joke as a "Hey remember that one time?". It just doesn't work.
The short film he had at the beginning of the special was actually really good. I enjoyed seeing these well known actors appear and get angry and other shenanigans. That part was enjoyable, but again was just Kevin Hart playing the same person he was in his last few action movies.
If you wish to see this movie I totally think you should, just know that if you head into it with high hopes you're most likely going to be let down.
He lost me right off the bat when the first 15-18 minutes was his SNL monologue from when he hosted the show back in 2013. He added a few things to the bit, spoke as if it had just happened last week, and delivered it virtually the same way as he did three years prior. From then on he continued to degrade his wife by saying he'd leave if she became disfigured. Now I love dark humor, Anthony Jeselnik is one of my favorite comedians, but Kevin Hart just comes off as sleazy when he tries it. This might be due to the fact that it's directed towards his wife/fiancé (or whomever he is with at the time) or towards his younger son, people who he has a direct relationship with. Hart resorted to a lot of cheap lowbrow comedy this time around. He spent a solid 10 minutes talking about having sex with a pocket p****. After that he went into detail about how his body was not responding well to coffee and acted as a very strong laxative. I am not offended by anything he said, he just did not deliver his material in such a way that the raunchy and rude comedy he came up with would be well received. One thing that a good comedian can do is to refer to an earlier joke as a smaller punchline to a later joke. Doing this makes the audience feel as if they are in on an inside joke with the comedian and had you not heard the earlier joke you wouldn't get it. Sort of a "you had to be there" moment that makes it more personal. Hart attempts this and the first time he did it was pretty good, but after the 5th or 6th time he referred to an earlier joke, the moment was lost and so was the humor. Kind of like that one kid in school who says one thing that gets a laugh then continues to use the same joke as a "Hey remember that one time?". It just doesn't work.
The short film he had at the beginning of the special was actually really good. I enjoyed seeing these well known actors appear and get angry and other shenanigans. That part was enjoyable, but again was just Kevin Hart playing the same person he was in his last few action movies.
If you wish to see this movie I totally think you should, just know that if you head into it with high hopes you're most likely going to be let down.