Formula: Stir Crazy / Fun With Dick and Jane
Cast: Will Ferrell is an established comedy giant and Kevin Hart is rapidly becoming one. They have different comedic voices that could play well off one another in the right situation. It's a little awkward though, because neither is comfortable playing the straight man here and the movie doesn't commit to the anarchy needed to ignore having a straight man altogether (See: Anchorman 2). Alison Brie is underused and poorly utilized (what's new?). They dust off Craig T. Nelson to play a corrupt old white guy. T.I. and some others show up too as some gang members. It's really a two-man movie with cameos.
Plot: James (Ferrell) is a big time Wall Street millionaire living in Bel-Air who gets sent to jail for Bernie Madoff stuff. Darnell (Hart) is a clean cut black man who washes James' cars. James thinks Darnell went to prison, because he's black and all, and hires Darnell to prepare him for prison life with the month he has before going. It's a pretty simple setup and plays out as you'd expect, be it having a lot of good jokes early and wearing the premise out well before the end, or James and Darnell becoming close friends by the end, or James being innocent and trying to clear his name. This is a perfect example or a movie that lives and dies on if the jokes land.
Elephant in the Room: Prison rape is hilarious. Am I right? That's legitimately the driving force of this movie: Will Ferrell wants to 'get hard' specifically to not get raped in prison*. It's hard to say how much of this movie was hurt by this being such a familiar character for Will Ferrell. Literally everything he says in this could've been said in The Campaign or by Ron Burgundy. Most of the best moments are when Kevin Hart punctuates a familiar punchline in an a new way (which didn't happen often).
*That is, except for one off sequence when they decide that there's no way to get around it, so he should get good at it instead, but whatever.
To Sum Things Up:
This is a movie of shocking humor for people who don't normally hear shocking humor. If "white people shouldn't say that" jokes are all you need, then great. This is the movie for you. Ferrell and Hart are completely game for whatever is thrown at them. The other actors don't get in the way, which is exactly what is needed from them. I laughed a few times, but a very low percentage of the jokes landed. The writing is inconsistent (Ferrell's character changes from scene to scene as the story beats demands) though. For a movie with a plot this thin to work it needs to be funnier, and it's not.
Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend
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