© FAKESHEMP.NET
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Podcasts
    • Podcasts
    • Good Movie Monday
    • WTF was that?
  • MEDIA
    • Videos >
      • Photos
  • GLG
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • About

NIGHT SCHOOL

26/9/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
2018 | DIR. MALCOLM D LEE | REVIEW BY GLENN COCHRANE.

Picture
It's not supposed to happen like this. A Kevin Hart movie is not supposed to surpass expectations by being funny. So please excuse me if I seem out of sorts, because I am navigating unfamiliar territory here. NIGHT SCHOOL is a formulaic back-to-school flick, which follows loads of similar comedies throughout the years... such as Back To School, Billy Madison and Old School. It is an unapologetic self-produced vehicle, tailored towards Hart's own brand of comedy and it relies on the audience's low level of expectation.
Hart plays Teddy, a high school drop out with undiagnosed learning disabilities. He has cruised through life living from pay-check to pay-check and using his salesman charm to sell himself as successful. When he loses his job as a result of a botched marriage proposal at his workplace he struggles to find another title that would sustain his lifestyle. And so with no choice but to return to school to earn his diploma, he enrols in night course and joins an abnormal class of middle age students. And there lies your premise. There's little more to it, and the rest of the film is mostly predictable, contrived and customary... good.

There isn't a snowflake's chance in hell of NIGHT SCHOOL winning awards, dominating the box office or being revered. Heck, you'll probably have trouble tracking down a single glowing review of it. And so it is with a smidgen of pride (and frustration towards my peers) that I admit that it is very funny and entirely enjoyable. I wont abuse the English language by using emotive words like “great”, “fantastic” or any other exaggerations, but I will – with all honesty – tell you that it tickled my funny bone and sustained a consistent level of fun.
Picture

​I attended a full screening alongside many fellow film critics and entertainment writers. And far be it for me to throw any of them under the bus, I will just express disappointment in many of their attitudes (without the added name-and-shame). The atmosphere throughout the screening was lighthearted and jovial, with barely a moment lacking laughter. I gave the room an occasional scan, making mental notes of people I knew who were enjoying themselves. It was mostly laughs as far as I could see, and yet I anticipate scathing reviews and merciless take-downs from their media platforms. To them I say C'mon! Admit you liked it. Admit that it was funny. To hell with your reputations... how about a truthful response?

Director Malcolm D Lee (Girls Trip, The Best Man, Barbershop: The Next Cut) reunites with Kevin Hart and consciously throws back to a brand of comedy from the 80s and 90s. With hints of John Hughes at play, as well as Todd Phillips and a smidgen of Lorne Michaels, the references extend to the more dramatic high school movies like Lean on Me and Dangerous Minds. And with a strong ensemble including Tiffany Haddish, Rob Riggle, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Al Madrigal the result is a nostalgic and occasionally heartwarming lampoon that belongs elsewhere in time.

As indicated earlier, I am not a fan of Kevin Hart. I typically find his comedy to be incessantly mundane and lame. His career has been built around being short, and there isn't a movie of his that hasn't used his lack of height as its crux. However, despite NIGHT SCHOOL playing off the same motif, his schtick has found a place. The self-depreciating height jokes are mostly funny here, and the ongoing insults are as immature as they are clever. Jokes are made at everyone's expense but they are never mean-spirited.

Justifiably spending money to see NIGHT SCHOOL at the cinema is entirely your choice to make, but I will argue that there will not be a better way to see it. Waiting for an home-entertainment release will deny you the pleasure of laughing with an audience, and perhaps the movie's impact will be diminished without that communal experience. Of course you can take what I say with a grain of salt, but if you choose to take advice from other critics then just know that I saw many of them laughing... a lot!
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    OUR WRITERS
    GLENN COCHRANE
    JARRET GAHAN
    SHAUN CRAWFORD
    ALEX MAYNARD
    CHRIS THOMPSON​
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    September 2010
    April 2010

    RSS Feed

© 2018 FakeShemp.Net    All rights reserved.  FakeShemp.Net Illustrations by MJ Barros. 
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Podcasts
    • Podcasts
    • Good Movie Monday
    • WTF was that?
  • MEDIA
    • Videos >
      • Photos
  • GLG
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • About