Trailer: Central Intelligence
Posted on March 23, 2016 at 8:00 am
It looks a little bit “The In-Laws,” a little bit “Spy,” and a lot every Kevin Hart movie ever made, but it also looks like it might be fun.
Why We Love Jimmy Fallon’s Lip Synch Contests: Fallon, Ferrell, and Hart Perform “Drunk in Love,” “Let It Go,” “All of Me” (Plus Drew Barrymore)
Posted on February 4, 2015 at 9:22 am
I always enjoy Jimmy Fallon’s lip synch competitions and this is one of the best, with Will Ferrell performing “Drunk in Love” and ‘Let it Go,” Kevin Hart going all out with “All of Me” and “Roar,” and Fallon rocking out to “Since You’ve Been Gone” and “Time of My Life” (with a guest appearance by Drew Barrymore). Hart and Ferrell were there to promote their upcoming comedy “Get Hard.” It is great fun to see stars show themselves as fans. They have to be more than performers to do these numbers — they have to truly love these songs and listen to them so often they know them inside out. Apparently, even enormously talented and successful performers are just like the rest of us when it comes to singing into a hairbrush and imagining ourselves rocking an arena like Beyoncé. I also think part of what makes it fun is the gender and racial fluidity. No one ever hesitates to take on a song by someone of a different race or gender. All three men do more than fully commit to performing songs by women; they embrace the opportunity to pretend to hit those notes with pure joy. Every one of the performers seems to love the chance to do something completely outside his or her normal range or physical type. Who can forget Emma Stone doing “All I Do is Win,” in my opinion the greatest lip synch yet!
Think Like a Man Too
Posted on June 19, 2014 at 6:00 pm
A romantic comedy based on Steve Harvey’s book of advice for women about relationships
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. After all, seeing pretty people do silly things so they can kiss and make up is always a good reason to go to a movie. And these are some of Hollywood’s most appealing performers.
In the first film, a group of buddies with a regular basketball game find themselves flummoxed by a bevy of beauties who read Steve Harvey’s book for tips on dealing with players, mama’s boys, and perpetual adolescents. The happily ever after ending has now led to a proposal and the whole group is going to Las Vegas for separate wild pre-nuptial parties followed by the wedding itself. When the groom-to-be assures his bride that everything will be perfect and nothing can possibly go wrong, we know that nothing will be perfect and everything will go wrong in the most humiliating way possible until we find our way to another happy ending with a possible opening for #3, which I hereby predict will involve a baby or two.
Would-be chef Dom (Michael Ealy) and corporate powerhouse Lauren (Taraji P. Henson) are deeply in love but struggling with job opportunities in different cities that they are afraid to tell one another. Mya (Meagan Good) is not happy to run into stories about the wild past of “Zeke the Freak” (Romany Malco). Kristen (Gabrielle Union) wants to get pregnant as quickly as possible and that puts a lot of pressure on Jeremy (Jerry Ferrara).
But the development that has the biggest impact on the film is the one that happened off-screen. Since the first one was released, Kevin Hart has become a box office powerhouse with a concert film in 2013 and two enormously successful comedies already in 2014 (About Last Night and Ride Along). This is most likely the reason that he takes up so much more of “Too” than he did in the first one. And since is a very loud guy, he seems to take up even more than he does, too often with all the appeal of a buzzing mosquito.
The entire premise of the first film is jettisoned, along with any aspirations beyond silly fun. It takes Cedric (Hart) far too long to figure out that he has mistakenly booked himself into a room that costs ten times what he thinks, because every time there is any possibility to mitigate the damages of whatever he has gotten himself into, he blusters like a bantam rooster to block any kind of reality check from the other characters. And this is close to the movie’s most plausible plotline. Even Lucy and Ethel could not make us believe that anyone cares whether the boys or the girls have a wilder pre-nuptial party. Director Tim Story throws in every possible signifier of movie fun, from a makeover (“Bridesmaids'” Wendy McLendon-Covey) to a dance number (okay, the girls’ dancing to Bell Biv DeVoe’s irresistible “Poison” is a treat) and the ever-popular night in the pokey plus the completely superfluous addition of a couple of cute white guys (Adam Brody and “About a Boy’s” David Walton.
The cast is clearly just here to have a good time, and the audience will, too.
Parents should know that this film includes some strong language including crude sexual references and humor, sexual situations, strippers, drinking and drunkenness, and drug use, along with a lot of foolish Las Vegas behavior.
Family discussion: What were the groups trying to accomplish in their pre-nuptial parties? Which couple has the strongest relationship?
If you like this, try: the first film and “About Last Night” (rated R), also featuring Hart, Ealy, and Hall.
About Last Night
Posted on February 13, 2014 at 6:00 pm
B| Lowest Recommended Age: | Adult |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated R for for sexual content, language and brief drug use |
| Profanity: | Very strong, crude, and explicit language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking, drunkenness, scenes bars, marijuana |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Comic peril |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | February 14, 2014 |
Kevin Hart, who starred in the surprisingly successful “Ride Along” just last month, is back with a much sharper, funnier comedy that is ideal for making the best use of his brash, motormouth persona. Even more important, for the first time Hart appears opposite someone who is every bit his match, the fabulously talented and knock-out gorgeous Regina Hall. It’s one of the best on-screen romantic pairings since Mae West and W.C. Fields. As a funny post-credit scene shows, she not only kept up with him every step of the way, she challenged him to do better. It is clear he is not only upping his game but having a blast.
David Mamet’s play “Sexual Perversity in Chicago” was softened a bit for its 1986 movie version, also called “About Last Night,” a romantic comedy starring Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Jim Belushi, and Elizabeth Perkins. But it was still, for its time, provocatively frank in its portrayal of two couples who were navigating a world that was post Mr. Goodbar but pre-AIDS, pre-Tinder, and pre use of the term “booty call.”
Like the original, there is a serious couple and a comic couple. As the movie begins, Bernie (Hart) and Joan (Hall) are each giving their best friends all the details (and I mean all) of the wild, drunken sex within moments of meeting at a bar the night before. Their friends are Danny (Michael Ealy, with a lot of leading man sizzle) and Debbie (Joy Bryant, with one of the best smiles in Hollywood), both serious, stable, and gunshy about relationships following some bad experiences. Bernie and Joan bring their friends along to their second meeting, otherwise known as the “this isn’t a date date.” Bernie and Joan introduce them to each other as “boring,” and that, more than any other reason, prompts them to try to interact and prove that it isn’t true. “I’m not really boring,” Debbie explains. “I just pretend to be so she can be the crazy one.” Debbie and Danny have sex within hours after meeting, uncharacteristic impulsivity for both of them, and then they worry about what it all means.
Danny and Debbie end up moving in together but poor communication, struggles with intimacy, and Danny’s insecurity over losing his job while Debbie is professionally accomplished. No one seems to know what it means to have sex, to live with someone, to say “I love you” first, to decide to get a puppy. And no one is clear about what it should mean — Danny and Debbie want to have a relationship (most of the time) but sometimes it scares them. And when one of them gets scared, the other’s feelings get hurt.
What keeps this part of the story from bogging things down is the energy and oh-no-you-didn’t outrageousness of the bicker/banter, which starts out down and dirty and then gets even down and dirtier. From the opening blast of “Sex Machine” through a series of hilariously explicit conversations swinging back and forth between confident assertions about the most intimate specifics and panicked cluelessness about the basics of any form of interaction out of bed. So, there’s a lot of theories about how to behave and a lot of failure to carry it off. Danny’s problems at work and with an ex are under-written distractions that don’t work as well as the silly fun of a costume party that has Danny and Debbie dressed as Ike and Tina Turner. The energy and chemistry of the four leads keeps things moving so briskly that it diminishes the familiarity of the material. And, more important, it keeps us hoping for a happy ending.
Parents should know that this is a very raunchy comedy. It features extremely explicit sexual references and situations, sexual humor including many jokes about casual sex and various sexual acts and body parts, drinking and drunkenness, drinking games, and marijuana.
Family discussion: Why did Danny keep asking Debbie if they were fighting? Why did Bertie and Joan enjoy making each other angry?
If you like this, try: the original version, starring Rob Lowe and Demi Moore (briefly glimpsed in this remake), “He’s Just Not That Into You,” and “Think Like a Man”
Ride Along
Posted on January 16, 2014 at 6:00 pm
Ice Cube and Kevin Hart have such a devoted fan base that they can count on them to buy a ticket to anything they do, and that is pretty much what they have done here in a generic buddy cop movie that wears out its welcome quickly but keeps on slogging through every possible action comedy cliché. Is there an angry and frustrated police chief? Check. Are there two opposite kind of guys who squabble all the time but develop a grudging respect for one another? And one is a serious, taciturn loner and the other is a volatile, voluble guy with impulse control problems? Check. Is there a mysterious crime kingpin no one has seen who will turn out to be a surprise guest star but not really a surprise because the name was in the opening credits? Check. Will a trusted person turn out not to be trustworthy, but that won’t be much of a surprise either? Check check check check check. Is this one of those movies where no one told the star it should have been better because the star is also the producer? I don’t need to add a “check” there, do I?
Ice Cube plays James, a tough cop who has been after the mysterious Omar for years. He gets little support from his boss (Bruce McGill), who is losing patience with the mayhem James has created with little to show for it. Kevin Hart plays Ben, a high school security guard, who is dating James’ sister, Angela (Tika Sumpter). Ben hopes to be accepted by the police academy so he can earn James’ respect and marry Angela. But James finds it hard to respect anyone, especially Ben. They agree to a test. James will allow Ben to ride along with him for one day. If he can prove himself to be reliable, trustworthy, and brave, James will approve of Ben’s relationship with Angela.
Will James do everything he can to scare Ben away? What do you think? Will any of it make any sense? Not really. Will they try to get laughs out of pointless destruction and reckless shooting injuries? Yep. How about from being doped up on morphine? Sure, why not?
Their journey will take them to a confrontation with bikers, a shooting gallery, a completely pointless encounter with a guy who is trashing a grocery store, taking his clothes off, and pouring honey on his chest, and, of course, as we continue to check off every ingredient from the generic cop movie recipe, the strip club, PG-13 version. The ingredient it misses, though is characters we care about. The movie relies much too heavily on our interest in Ice Cube and Kevin Hart and is too lazy to make us interested in James or Ben. It is hard to want to see James develop respect for Ben when Ben is annoying, cowardly, and arrogant. It is hard to want to see Ben learn anything from James when James goes to such lengths to mess with him. Most of all, it is hard to sit through this movie when we know that both men can do better.
Parents should know that this film includes frequent law-enforcement peril and violence with many guns, chases, and explosions, characters injured and killed, some violence intended to be humorous, use of morphine portrayed as comic, strong language (s-word, b-word, n-word), skimpy clothes, strip club (no nudity), very crude humor, explicit sexual references and non-explicit situation
Family discussion: How did James’ suspicious nature help him in his job? How did it impair his judgment? How would you ask Ben to prove himself?
If you like this, try: the “Lethal Weapon” movies and “The Other Guys”