Get Hard

Facing a 10-year prison term for fraud and embezzlement, fabulously wealthy hedge-fund manager James King (Will Ferrell) hires car-washer Darnell Lewis (Kevin Hart) to toughen him up for what lies ahead. Steadfastly maintaining his innocence, Harvard-educated James has just been made partner at a Los Angeles investment firm run by Martin (Craig T. Nelson), and he has a sexy, gold-digging fiancée named Alissa (Alison Brie). But after his lawyer (Greg Germann) warns him about prison life, James panics. James has 30 days of house arrest before he's shipped off to San Quentin to become someone's “bitch.” What he doesn't realizes is that Darnell is a working-class family man with a wife (Edwina Findley) and daughter (Ariana Neal). But, desperately needing $30,000 for a home mortgage so they can move out of crime-riddled South Central, Darnell pretends to have a gangsta past. Director Etan Cohen's Get Hard is built around a one-joke premise: James's fear of rape and enforced fellatio, so it's full of crude jabs at race, gender, and homosexuality. But the jokes are stale and the film is both uneven and tiresome, wasting the gifts of two talented comedians. Not recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a gag reel (3 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are deleted scenes (25 min.), “Line-O-Rama” outtakes (10 min.), the behind-the-scenes featurettes “Inmates Out of Control” (6 min.), “Face Off” (6 min.), “Put Your Lips Together and Blow” (4 min.), a “Kevin Hart Workout” (3 min.), “Ferrell Fighting” (3 min.), “Bikers, Babes, & Big Bangs” (3 min.), “Will Ferrell, Gangsta” (2 min.), “A Date with John Mayer” (2 min.), and the brief “Twerking 101,” and bonus DVD and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid Blu-ray extras package for a tiresome comedy.] (S. Granger)