Movie Review: “Get Hard” and “Home”
“Get Hard”
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 100 minutes
Toscano’s Take:
Rating: D
It’s about a billionaire who’s nailed for fraud and he’s on his way to San Quentin so he hires a man to help him survive in prison. “Get Hard” is a buddy picture about people coming from different worlds, one from the world of high finance and the other from the streets. The film is basically a rip-off of “Trading Places,” the 1983 Eddie Murphy Dan Aykroyd film about a wealthy stockbroker who is set up and loses everything and must begin again with the help of a street-wise con man.
And yes, there’s a bit of Rob Schneider’s 2007 going-to-prison film “Big Stan” tossed in as well. “Get Hard” pretty much steals from those films and just adds more vulgarity and sexual content. The film drags and changes directions and all the while Will Ferrell is mugging to the camera while Kevin Hart looks on with dull surprise.
For it’s lack of even trying to do something new, “Get Hard” gets a D and is rated R.
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Starring: Studio:
Will Ferrell Warner Bros.
Kevin Hart
Craig T. Nelson
“Get Hard” is a comedy film directed by Etan Cohen (in his directorial debut) and written by Etan Cohen, Jay Martel and Ian Roberts. The film stars Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Alison Brie, Edwina Findley, and Craig T. Nelson.
Wealthy businessman James King (Will Ferrell) is wrongfully convicted of tax evasion. He hires his building’s car-washer, Darnell Lewis (Kevin Hart), whom he incorrectly thinks has served time in jail, to teach him how to survive his upcoming 10-year prison sentence.
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“Home”
MPAA Rating: PG
Running Time: 94 minutes
Toscano’s Take:
Rating: C-
Also now in theaters, the new animated film from Dreamworks, “Home.” Jim Parsons voices the lovable, misfit alien, Oh, whose fellow Booovians don’t want to like him because he’s odd. Rihanna voices Tip, who’s determined to find and reunite with her mother, played by Jennifer Lopez. These two characters bump into each other and form an unlikely friendship through a series of of comic adventures. Oh learns what it means to be human while Tip comes to understand Oh’s loneliness.
Although this was a very different role for Jim Parsons, who stars in “The Big Bang Theory,” he did a very good job, Rihanna on the other hand was only so-so and sounded too grown up to be the voice of a little kid. Steve Martin voices Captain Smek and unfortunately wasn’t given enough material to be properly funny. What’s the point of hiring Steve Martin if he’s not going to be funny?
Children will definitely enjoy “Home” but I can’t say the same for parents or other adults watching it. It really isn’t very funny, it’s dry and lacks the type of humor parents and kids need to enjoy together. “Home” is really targeted to very small children. I’m giving it a C and it’s rated a PG.
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Starring: Studio:
Jim Parsons Dreamworks
Jennifer Lopez
Rihanna
Steve Martin
“Home” is a 2015 3D computer-animated buddy comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is based on Adam Rex’s 2007 children’s book The True Meaning of Smekday and stars Rihanna, Jim Parsons, Jennifer Lopez, and Steve Martin. Tim Johnson is the director of the film, Chris Jenkins and Suzanne Buirgy are its producers, and the adaptation is by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember.
An optimistic yet inept alien race called the Boov led by Captain Smek (Steve Martin) invade the Earth to hide from their mortal enemy and make it their new home. Convinced that they are doing humans a favor, they begin to relocate them to Australia. A resourceful teenage girl named Tip (Rihanna), manages to avoid capture.When on the run and looking for the location of her mother Lucy (Jennifer Lopez), she is accompanied by a banished Boov named Oh (Jim Parsons) who has accidentally notified his people’s enemies of their whereabouts.
