Delayed Reaction: The Man from Toronto

Premise: Kevin Hart is a normal guy who gets mistaken for a notorious killer.

 

Kevin Hart isn’t my favorite comic actor out there, but I do respect that he’s found a formula that works for him and doesn’t want to rock the boat too much. The formula is “Hart + imposing actor = funny”. He’s done this several times with Dwayne Johnson. He made two Ride Alongs with Ice Cube. Naturally, it’s what he’s doing in The Man from Toronto with Woody Harrelson*.

 

*Interestingly, when Hart instead pairs with someone less imposing like Will Ferrell (Get Hard) or Josh Gad (The Wedding Ringer) the films haven’t done as well.

 

The Man from Toronto is a “Netflix churn” movie. It feels like a lot of other movies to the point where I wonder if an algorithm made it. I watched it as low-impact viewing on a Saturday morning that I could ignore, guilt-free, if I wanted. I got a couple small laughs out of it. Hart and Harrelson both know their personas well and how to get a laugh out of nothing with them. I know this sounds like damning with faint praise, but The Man from Toronto is a functional movie that looks like a movie. It cost $75 million and looks like it cost that much. There’s a strong “afternoon TBS watch” vibe to it. I’m glad my only option was to watch this on Netflix. On Netflix, it was fine. At a theater would’ve been underwhelming.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don’t Recommend