Get Hard, written by Jay Martel, Ian Roberts, Etan Cohen - Seven out of 10

Get Hard, written by Jay Martel, Ian Roberts, Etan Cohen

Seven out of 10

Silly?

Definitely, but this comedy can be amusing at times, especially given the charisma, reputation that precedes the two stars:

Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart

Will Ferrell plays James, a rich stock trader, selfish, arrogant, bigoted, without empathy, superficial, somewhat ignorant, with a rather low emotional intelligence, possessing a huge mansion.

In one of the first scenes, the hero is in the bedroom with his wife to be, Alissa aka he very good Alison Brie, who is very provocative, wears some sexy underwear and talks about the house and her…breasts.

Whose are they?

They are mine…

Alas, the woman is interested in wealth – we should add excessive – and when the protagonist is in trouble she would not support him, furthermore, she wants to have nothing more to do with him.

The stockbroker washes his expensive limousine – most likely an Audi – at the firm of Darnell aka the flamboyant, talented Kevin Hart.

One day, the car wash owner has a special offer for the man who wants his expensive automobile clean – a lifetime service for only thirty thousand dollars, which would be such an exceptional saving.

Alas, the haughty, self-important, somewhat Trump-like narcissistic rich man responds with a calculation pretending that if he invested the 30 k, with his acumen he would make in excess of three million dollars:

-          “I could thus change and buy a new car whenever it gets dirty without having to clean it!”

Darnell is upset, for he plans to buy a house for his family and before this discussion, James had been terrified when an African American knocked at the window of his car, sure that this is going to be a robbery.

In fact, this one theme adds some gravitas to the movie, for it plays on preconceived ideas, hidden racism, snobbishness, and the impression that this white man and so many others have that black people are bad.

The stockbroker has a birthday party where a celebrity singer is invited, an expensive party is organized, a lavish guitar is offered as a present and when the celebrated man is singing along the music star…the police walk in.

The hero is arrested and he faces multiple charges of fraud, embezzlement and other crimes.

He claims he is innocent and rejects the argument of the lawyer that he should seek a guilty plea.

Without that, he is sentenced to ten years in prison!

With his racial prejudice, he is sure that Durrell had served time in prison and he even makes a silly argument:

-          “Look, I deal with statistics…that is what I do and one in three black men are serving time…

-          How do you know I went to jail?

-          Imagine a pizza with three slices…one slice is the black man who went to jail”

Darnell is hired, for thirty thousand dollars, to coach the scared, terrified white man who is going to Saint Quentin.

He will have to learn to…Get Hard.

Not all of the story is amusing.

Indeed, there are only a few scenes that would make audiences laugh – the public has rated this at 6 out of 10 and the critics have been even harsher, with an average of 34 out of 100.

In fact, you better watch the movie trailer, because this is as Hard as it gets, the humor you see there is relevant for the whole motion picture.