Get Hard (2015)
Certified: 15
Duration: 100 minutes
Directed by: Etan Coen
Starring: Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Alison Brie, Edwina Findley, Craig T. Nelson, T.I., Ariana Neal, Greg Germann, Paul Ben-Victor, Dan Bakkedahl
KRS Releasing Ltd
Will Ferrell is James King, a filthy rich investor who has it all: a super hot fiancée, Alissa (Alison Brie), an extravagant house and a multitude of posh cars. Life takes a wrong turn when he is unjustily sent to 10 years in prison because of fraud and money-connected crimes.
He has 30 days to set his life straight before being jailed. He thus gets Darnell (Kevin Hart), an African American whom he believes to be an ex-convict, to teach him how to be tough and mean and survive in jail. Darnell, who is after all a very honest man, wants the $30,000 James is offering to get a better house for him and his wife (Edwina Findley Dickeron) and a better school for his sweet 10-year-old girl (Ariana Neal).
But things do not go as planned and so Darnell brings in his gangsta cousin Russell (T.I.). He wants him to protect James once he is in San Quentin State Prison. Russell only accepts when James shows him how he can turn the money profited from drugs into a legitimate Wall Street investment. Meanwhile, James continues to insist he is innocent and Darnell starts to believe him and become real friends. That is when they discover that Martin (Craig T. Nelson), who had been James’s boss, and his lawyer Peter (Greg Germann) have played their cards well and James is getting the blame for what they did wrong.
Ferrell and Hart nail down silly with aplomb and gather more than their fair share of laughs with their over-the-top antics. The two bring about opposite comedic styles which somehow complement each other. They manage to generate an on-screen chemistry that leads to quite a number of hilarious sequences and keep the script by Jay Martel, Ian Roberts and Etan Coen on track and patch it up where needed to make an enjoyable affair.
The film follows the same kind of social themes, like the social divide, that the classic Eddie Murphy movie Trading Places (1983) had plundered. The film also makes good use of Hart’s trademark fast-talking approach, which is making him quite popular.
The two protagonists play stereotypes and they know it. The film’s premise is, in fact, a play on these stereotypes and it amplifies every action, word and facial expression. Even when the story starts to mellow out, the film ends up surprising everyone with another jab of racial and social in-your-face satire.
Watching the wimpy and weak Ferrell get toughened up as he tries to prepare for a life in prison and avoiding and humiliation is a hoot. That is what the film’s main attraction is: rough and crude humour laced with a sympathetic edge.