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As there is every year, outrageously over-the-top comedies are fed to cinema-goers by the bucketful, each trying to out-do the rest in raunchiness. Get Hard might just be the stupidest, most immature of 2015 yet, and will either leave you in stitches at its crassness or appalled at its vulgarity.
This is a buddy comedy starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart as James King and Darnell Lewis, respectively, with the former a wealthy hedge fund manager and the latter his car washer who is struggling to make ends meet and send his daughter to a decent school.
At an engagement party for himself and his fiancée Alissa (Alison Brie), James is arrested for embezzling funds and is given a month before his 10-year incarceration to get his affairs in order. He seeks out Darnell and, on the assumption he must have been in prison before because he is black (don’t say I didn’t warn you), asks him to toughen him up for life in prison, i.e. ‘get hard’.
Darnell, who you will no doubt be shocked to learn is a gentle soul who has never been near a prison cell in his life, agrees to ‘train’ James in return for the money he needs to move to a better neighbourhood.
As is to be expected with such an asinine premise, the antics the two get up to are as ridiculous as they are offensive, but the two certainly throw themselves into their roles and give it their all, living up to their pedigree.
Just like Ferrell’s other vile-yet-loveable creations (Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy instantly springs to mind) James is the kind of thoughtless idiot who’s easy to root for. Ferrell seems to play this kind of character a lot and I expected it to be another grating and unoriginal performance, but with Hart in tow as a legitimately funny comedian, Ferrell feeds off his energy and delivers his most enthusiastic role in a long time.
Hart is his usual brilliant self and also seems to enjoy playing off such an esteemed partner, ramping his silliness up to 11. The two have great chemistry, which is the bricks and mortar of a buddy comedy, and in the hands of lesser individuals, could have seen the film tank completely.
The humour is very hit-and-miss, according to your tastes. As someone who loves inappropriate, vulgar and dirty jokes, I found myself howling at the witty one-liners and set pieces involving famous stereotypes. However, those of a more polite disposition or who like a spoonful of intelligence with their diet of laughter, you’d probably be best avoiding this one.
Plenty of the humour is indeed crass for crassness’ sake, but a lot of it has a clever satirical edge to it, mostly aimed at the privileged Beverley Hills elite which Ferrell’s character represents. Right from the start, the audience knows Darnell is taking advantage of James to gain a tiny slice of his wealth, but it’s James’s own ignorance and sense of self-entitlement that leads him to be easily manipulated. Of course, as the film develops, the two gain a mutual respect for each other, and that’s where their dynamic really flourishes and the movie gets its heart.
That isn’t to say there aren’t some duds, though. Not every joke lands, and when they don’t, it really is cringe-worthy. It’s difficult to discuss them openly in a family newspaper, but think of the most common anecdotes about prison, add in an upper-class white snob and multiply the same joke by 50, and you’ll understand why it can get tiresome.
There’s also the extremely annoying issue of the film being cut to shreds by the censors. Apparently an 18+ rating isn’t sufficient enough, so we have to suffer through various scenes being cut-and-pasted together which creates a very jarring and disappointing experience.
Overall, though, Get Hard does a decent job of straddling the borders of outrageous and offensive. Ferrell and Hart’s partnership and antics are worth a watch, and this is a film that knows what its brand of humour is and aims for exactly that. It doesn’t always work and a few scenes are spoiled by the PC brigade, but as buddy comedies go, this one ain’t bad.
