Millionaire James King (Will Farrell) wakes every day in his King sized bed next to his fiancée…in his mansion in Bel Air…to the sound of classical music and tai chi routines. His license plate reads IMA GAWD . By day he’s a trader (think Bernie Madoff). But when his future father-in-law (Craig T. Nelson) frames him for fraud, he’s bound for San Quentin. With little choice, James hires Darnell Lewis (Kevin Hart) to prep him for life behind bars…Hart is Farrell’s incarceration expert.
This would be fine except Darnell is a happily married man who runs a car wash – Hollywood Luxury Bubbles – and never even got a parking ticket. But Darnell goes along with being an ‘ex con’ because James offers him $30,000 to train him. And it’s exactly the amount Darnell needs to buy his family a house.
It’s been awhile since Will Farrell had a hit, but like he does with Ron Burgundy – or any of his other characters – it’s the fact that he stays in the character from beginning to end that makes him hilarious. But this isn’t Farrell’s film. Instead it’s Kevin Hart’s…who finally can claim the Eddie Murphy throne of the next generation with his overly energized fast-talking routine. And with audiences loving ‘superior position’ on an inside plot that the characters IN the movie don’t know about, it’s usually recipe for box office brownies.
Get Hard is about getting tough, and the writer/director Etan Cohen does a smart thing by giving off the right message…he lets the movie’s bad guy gangs come off as good, and the Wall Street good guys come off as bad. You’ll walk out of the film mesmerized that you could laugh so hard and care so much about these two ridiculous underdogs with a sentimental film ending. Not since The Hangover have we cared so much for fools in over their heads. ♔ ♕ ♚ 3/4