Get Hard
| Get Hard | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Etan Cohen |
| Produced by | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/> |
| Screenplay by | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
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| Story by | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
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| Starring | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
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| Music by | Christophe Beck |
| Cinematography | Tim Suhrstedt |
| Edited by | Michael L. Sale |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
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Release dates
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March 27, 2015 |
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Running time
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100 minutes[1][2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $40 million[3] |
| Box office | $111.7 million[3] |
Get Hard is a 2015 American buddy comedy film directed by Etan Cohen (in his directorial debut) and written by Cohen, Jay Martel and Ian Roberts.[4] The film stars Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Alison Brie, Edwina Findley, T.I., and Craig T. Nelson.[5] The film was released on March 27, 2015 to negative reviews but was a financial success, grossing over $111 million.
Contents
Plot
James King (Will Ferrell) is an extremely wealthy hedge fund manager of Barrow Funds run by Martin Barrow (Craig T. Nelson). He is engaged to his gorgeous gold-digging fiancée Alissa (Alison Brie) who is Martin's daughter. His car washer, Darnell Lewis (Kevin Hart), and his wife, Rita (Edwina Findley), are trying to put their daughter Makayla (Ariana Neal) in a better school away from the bad neighborhood they live in. Darnell meets James when he accidentally frightens James in the parking lot. James makes a speech about how he got to his success, and to inspire Darnell to go for his. He pulls out a big wad of cash, only to give two singles as a "tip" for Darnell.
Alissa hosts an engagement party for herself and James. She gives him an electric guitar as a gift, and invites John Mayer onstage to perform. James performs alongside Mayer momentarily until the FBI storm in and arrest James for fraud and embezzlement. James' lawyer Peter Penny (Greg Germann) urges James to go for a guilty plea, but he refuses and insists that he will be exonerated. Instead, everybody that lost money in the embezzlement scheme is out for James's head. Upon James being found guilty, the judge (Elliott Grey) sentences James to ten years at San Quentin State Prison, with only 30 days to get his affairs in order. His assets are frozen and he is placed under house arrest. James cuts off his ankle monitor and tries to flee the country. He drives to a country club to get Alissa to go with him, but she says she has left him and decided to move on after it was discovered he wasn't innocent. The police then show up and re-arrest James, who asks his boss Martin for help.
James encounters Darnell once more in the parking lot, expressing his fears over going to prison. He asks Darnell how he managed in prison, simply assuming he was incarcerated because he is black. James then begs Darnell to teach him how to toughen up if he wants to survive in prison. Darnell demands payment in the form of $30,000, which James agrees to.
Darnell, who has little idea of how to act tough himself, tries to put on a facade of his own. To start his "training", Darnell pepper-sprays James upon arriving to his home. He tries to get James ready for prison by intimidating with his "mad dog" face (James can only "sad dog" it), creating scenarios in which he must defend himself, and picking fights at the park (only for James to be beaten multiple times). James gets in touch with Martin and says he's getting help. Martin, who is the actual crook, thinks James is onto him and orders Peter and a hired gun named Gayle to take care of business.
With little time left and even less improvement, Darnell figures that James has to learn how to perform oral sex in prison. They go to a gay hook-up spot for James to find a man to give fellatio to, but he can't go through with it and tells Darnell (in front of the other curious and interested gay men) that he will keep going and do whatever it takes to "get hard." James starts to work out harder and faster, makes shivs, and learns "keistering" - smuggling contraband in the anus. Darnell simulates a prison raid with help from James' personal workers acting as inmates. In the chaos, James gets a shiv stuck in his head. Darnell drives James to his home for Rita to get the shiv out. He has dinner and listens to Darnell make up a story of how he went to prison (which is just a retelling of Boyz n the Hood). After James leaves, Makayla and Rita say they don't think James did it and that Darnell needs to do something that will really help him.
Mere days before his incarceration, James and Darnell resolve for James to join a local gang called the Crenshaw Kings to protect him in prison. James dresses in a ridiculous outfit that gets unwanted attention. Darnell's cousin Russell (T.I.), who runs the gang, isn't convinced that James can pay him and knows that Darnell is lying about prison. James does help the gang gain interest in finance and stocks. Darnell drives James to a bar where the Alliance of Whites gang is based. James is unable to be a convincing racist, leading the white supremacists to think he's a cop. They nearly burn his face with a motorcycle tire until Darnell rescues him by bursting in with a flamethrower. Darnell realizes James is innocent and they conclude that Martin is the crook. They sneak into his office and find the embezzlement records on Martin's old computer. Unfortunately, Gayle (Paul-Ben Victor) finds them and takes the computer back after telling James that Darnell has a clean record and never actually went to prison. Despite his earlier misjudgment of Darnell previously being in prison, James feels betrayed and leaves the parking lot.
James returns to the Crenshaw Kings with the intention of joining. For his initiation, they want him to kill someone. Darnell arrives in time to stop him and convince him to catch Martin and expose him. The two find Martin's yacht and sneak on board. They grab the computer only to come across Gayle and more hitmen. James unleashes a series of capoeira moves on the goons while Darnell protects the computer. Martin comes out and confesses to the crime while Alissa steps out and admits that she was in on the scheme with the involvement of Peter. Martin and Alissa try to convince James to run away with them, but he turns them down and heads to the life raft with Darnell. The duo tries to get out on the life raft until Gayle shoots it out. James pulls out a gun he kept up his rear and aims it at Gayle until the US Marshals show up just in time, in response to James being outside of the county lines.
James then shows the Marshals the embezzlement records on Martin's computer, proving that Martin is the embezzler and James was just a target to frame the crime on. Martin and Gayle are then taken away by the Marshals with James cleared of all charges relating to the embezzlement. A Marshal then noticed that he was in possession of an unlicensed gun and had to do six months for it, but thanks to Darnell's training, James was ready to face prison life. Martin wasn't ready at all, but he learned a valuable lesson about how they be fucking in San Quentin. James helped the FBI find and return all the assets that Martin stole and got his bank account thawed out for it. James knew just where to invest his money, Darnell ended up opening his carwash, which was a total success that Rita and Makayla are proud of. After James gets released after his six months are up, Darnell is happy to see that James survived and he tells Darnell that he couldn't have survived without him. As Darnell drives James home, he decides to celebrate his freedom with a Wall Street Journal and a forty, which James considers a perfect Sunday.
Cast
- Will Ferrell as James King
- Kevin Hart as Darnell Lewis
- Craig T. Nelson as Martin Barrow
- Alison Brie as Alissa Barrow
- Edwina Findley as Rita Lewis
- T.I. as Russell
- Shad Gaspard as Big Ass Julian
- Ariana Neal as Makayla Lewis
- Greg Germann as Peter Penny
- Paul Ben-Victor as Gayle
- John Mayer as himself
- T.J. Jagodowski as Chris
- Dan Bakkedahl as Leo
- Erick Chavarria as Cecelio
- Jon Eyez as Big Mike
- Nito Larioza as Jaoa
- Ron Funches as Jojo
- Elliott Grey as Judge
- Matt Walsh as Bathroom Stall Man
- Jimmy Fallon as himself (uncredited)
Production
On December 7, 2012, it was announced that Warner Bros. was in talks to acquire the film written by Ian Roberts and Jay Martel, while Adam McKay and Will Ferrell's Gary Sanchez Productions would produce.[6] On September 17, 2013 Etan Cohen was set to direct.[4] On February 24, 2014, Warner Bros set the film for a March 27, 2015 release.[7]
On December 7, 2012, Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart were attached to starring roles.[6] On February 26, 2014, it was announced Craig T. Nelson had joined the cast to play Martin Barrow, the founder of Barrow Funds (Ferrell's character's boss) and also the father of Ferrell's character's fiancee.[8] On March 17, 2014 Alison Brie signed on to star, playing the fiancee of Ferrell's character.[9] On March 21, 2014, Edwina Findley joined the cast to play Rita Hudson, wife to Hart's character.[10] On March 24, 2014 Dan Bakkedahl joined the cast to play Rick, Ferrell’s hated enemy at their office.[11] On March 25, 2014 T.I. joined the cast, playing a character named Russell, Hart's character's streetwise cousin.[12]
Principal photography began on March 17, 2014 in New Orleans,[13] and ended on May 14, 2014.[14] The film was somewhat controversial with some perceiving that it was playing into race related stereotypes.[15] During some scenes Cohen asked Hart's opinion on how some jokes would be perceived by African American audiences and made some changes accordingly.[15] Warner Brothers and Cohen also performed extensive testing to make sure the humor came across well.[15]
Music
On October 30, 2014, Christophe Beck was hired to compose the music for the film.[16]
Release
The film was released by Warner Bros. on March 27, 2015.[7] Tim Suhrstedt is the director of photography.[13]
Box office
Get Hard grossed $90.4 million in North America and $21.3 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $111.7 million, against a budget of $40 million.[3]
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $33.8 million, coming in second place at the box office behind Home ($52.1 million). It was Ferrell's third-highest opening for a live-action film, behind Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby ($47 million) and The Other Guys ($35.5 million), and passed the following December by Daddy's Home ($38.7 million).[17]
Critical response
Get Hard has received generally negative reviews, with many critics citing the film's overuse of racial and gay jokes. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 30% approval rating, based on 153 reviews, with an average rating of 4.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A waste of two fine funnymen, Get Hard settles for tired and offensive gags instead of tapping into its premise's boundary-pushing potential."[18] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 34 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[19]
CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend recorded that cinema audiences gave Get Hard an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[20]
References
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