Once in a while, when we're very lucky and have been extra good, a film comes along with the legs of a good wine. A residual effect that lasts for days - even weeks - after a single watch. A film that will, when you're walking down the street or making a cup of tea, wriggle its way into your consciousness and make you question everything. Whilst these films don’t always have the highest budget, they are a product of incredible amounts of talent, hard work, passion and perseverance.
Get Hard is not one of these films.
See, he automatically assumes that Darnell has been to prison because he is black (oh my, how edgy), which of course he has not - because not all black people have been to prison, it’s a stereotype. That’s the message they’re conveying right? Except Darnell’s cousin, and all of his friends, who are in a gang, have been to prison. That kind of…undoes the really vague attempt at undoing a stereotype, and cheapens the film within the first few scenes. But if you don’t think that’s enough to cheapen it, don’t worry – there’s more!
With the exception of Darnell’s wife, there is not a single woman in the film who isn’t a gold digger or a bimbo – some are both, and most don’t have lines (but do have their boobs out for a huge portion of the film). There’s also a lovely homophobic scene – again, I’ll save you the spoilers, but includes the implications that 1) all gay people love brunch and 2) all gay people will accept sexual favours from anyone, strangers included. Well, at least the film makers discriminate indiscriminately.
Anyway, I got distracted by being enraged at the careless bigotry and lazy character creation, I was telling you about the “storyline”. James asks Darnell to teach him how to survive in prison (where he has never been), and he agrees because he needs the money to buy a house or something, I forget. It’s that gripping.
Etan Cohen’s directorial debut was, at best questionable, and at worst down right shoddy with poorly timed cuts and rocky scene transitions. He also wrote the offensive and unfunny script, so he has a lot to answer for here. The best thing about this film is how forgettable it is, so at least you won't have to deal with the irritable feeling you'll get whilst watching for too long.
Cheap and lazy jokes peppered with race guilt, actual racism, sexism and homophobia – a triple threat! – Though there are one or two genuine laughs, on the whole Get Hard is a painful waste of an enormous budget, and an even more painful waste of the movie going public’s time.
Get Hard is out this Friday