All Rise...

Appellate Judge Mac McEntire is already hard.

The Charge

"This ain't no longer your house, man. We in San Quentin now!"

The Case

The Will Ferrell comedy has become its own brand by now, so that every time a new one hits screens, audiences have a good idea of what to expect. Get Hard adds Kevin Hart (Ride Along) into the mix, in the hopes of transitioning him from popular comedian to A-list movie star. Does the movie work, or should we lock it up?

James King (Ferrell) has it all: gigantic mansion, hot fiancee, and millions flowing in. Then, he's arrested on embezzlement charges. With only thirty days to get his affairs in order, James decides to pay tough guy Darnell (Hart) for instructions on how to survive prison. What James doesn't know is that Darnell is not the street tough he appears to be. Instead, Darnell is a loving family man and small business owner—and he has no idea what prison like.

After establishing the clueless-leading-the-clueless premise, Darnell transforms James' mansion into a makeshift prison. From there, most of the movie is sketch comedy. The writers take a list of prison movie tropes—fights, working out in the yard, shivs, riots, escape attempts, and, yes, gay sex—and riffs on them for about ten minutes each. There's some character development, as James starts to get a little too enthusiastic about prison life, but mostly the story exists only as a series of gags.

Straight talk only in this room: Just what are we to make of Get Hard's attitudes on race? Is the constant flow of racial-based humor satirizing societal norms in a confrontational way, or do the filmmakers think they're hilarious while not realizing how offensive they're being? For example, James believes Darnell is an ex-con not because of anything Darnell says or does, but because James quotes some statistic about black men in jail. How, exactly, does this work as a joke? Is the punchline "ha-ha James is an idiot"? Or is the punchline "ha-ha look at how racist our society is"? Most of the movie's humor is jokes like this, and I just don't have an answer to how it's supposed to work. Did I laugh? The answer to that is no.

Will Ferrell is giving it his all, but James never really registers as a character. Ferrell plays snobby-billionaire-out-of-his-depth only sporadically, transitioning far too often into his familiar overly-enthusiastic-manchild persona that's served him so well over the years. Hart has a couple of good scenes, including one that has him doing a number of voices, bouncing back and forth among them. This display of comedic talent is impressive, but it's at the service of yet another unfunny sketch.

What else? The supporting cast includes Craig T. Nelson (The Incredibles) and Alison Brie (Community), who turn in reliable if workmanlike performances. The finale has the movie turning into more of a crime caper as James tries to clear his name, with a Rush Hour-like slapstick fight scene. I imagine a lot of viewers will have mentally tuned out by then, though.

Get Hard arrives on Blu-ray with a gorgeous 1080p transfer. Colors, textures, and skin tones are stunning and vibrant in their visual clarity. The lossless 5.1 audio, with a lot of popular tunes on the soundtrack, is clean and immersive as well. We're treated to a number of featurettes, which are mostly raw footage of the actors improvising on set. There's also a gag reel, a DVD copy, and a digital download. You have the option of watching either the theatrical version or the unrated version, but the differences between the two are slight.

We can debate racial issues and story structure all day, but this is naught but a silly Will Ferrell comedy. Therefore, the only question is, did I laugh? I half-smiled a couple of times, almost achieving full-on smile status. At no point, however, did I reach the level of amused chuckle. Take of that what you will.

The Verdict

Get back to your cell, inmate.

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