Today, I will be reviewing two very different movies. I will be reviewing "Get Hard" which is a comedy starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. I will also review "It Follows" which is a small horror movie with a really neat and unique concept. Before I get started, I'd like to give a shoutout to the Free Gamer's Alliance YouTube channel. Their videos cover everything from walkthroughs, glitches, easter eggs, and various amusing video game related content, all of which is delivered with some colorful commentary while they have buckets of fun doing it. Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/user/FreeGamersAlliance/
Let us start this off with "It Follows." Here is the trailer:
- The acting in this movie is fantastic for a horror movie. I absolutely believed everything that everyone says and does.
- There is an incredible amount of suspense and tension. This isn't the type of movie that will give you nightmares but it is quite unsettling.
- This movie avoids the common horror cliché of too many jump scares. There are a few but they feel earned and well timed.
- The story feels quite fresh and unique.
- The dialogue is incredibly well written. This is the first horror movie that I've seen in a long time where I didn't constantly roll my eyes.
The Bad:
- I do feel that the soundtrack is rather heavy handed. It is distracting and at times feels like it is trying to tell you how to feel at a certain point.
The Verdict:
"It Follows" is one of the best horror movies that I have seen in a long time. It pretty much invents an unsettling new urban legend and you will be on the edge of your seat the entire time. I absolutely recommend checking this out.
It is time to move on to "Get Hard." Here is the trailer:
- Alison Brie is absolutely fantastic in this movie. She provided the only moment that I actually laughed.
The Bad:
- The "plot" is all over the place. Things start to get very nonsensical even for a film of this nature.
- The pacing is brutal. A comedy needs to feel as if it is shorter than it really is but there are so many moments here that drag on and on that the movie actually feels about an hour longer than it actually is.
- There is a "prison riot" sequence that involves so much obnoxious flashing light that anyone who is prone to seizures will probably have them.
- It really feels like Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart are really phoning it in here. Neither of them looked like they were into their roles.
- Most of the characters are written to be so unlikeable that it really is impossible for the audience to become invested in them. This is especially important for a comedy as the audience can't be bored but if you don't care about anyone on screen then boredom is somewhat inevitable.
- The biggest problem, however, with "Get Hard" is the humor. 99% of the jokes are lazy, juvenile, and straight up not funny. The humor often crosses the line due to the fact that the movie uses relentless racism and homophobia as a crutch. This simply tells me that the writers couldn't think of anything better so they just decided to try and be as distasteful they possibly could. I'm not suggesting that all humor has to be PC but there are certain lines that really (especially in this day and age) really shouldn't be crossed and this movie crossed a whole lot of those. Frankly, the writers should have known a lot better. Instead of coming out of the movie feeling good from laughing I ended up feeling uncomfortable and disgusted.
The Verdict:
"Get Hard" is easily one of the laziest and most vile comedies that I have ever had the misfortune of sitting through. It is incredibly insulting to the intelligence of the audience and is just not funny. If the entire point of a comedy is to make people laugh, this one failed spectacularly. I absolutely do not recommend this movie under any circumstances as I would have had more fun watching paint dry, breaking my leg, or being trapped in a room with Nickelback playing on loop.
Thanks for reading everyone! As usual, feel free to leave a comment but please be advised that if you are going to read any potential comments that spoilers might be present.