Get Hard (Blu-ray) (2015) |
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Get Hard (Blu-ray) (2015) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy |
Featurette-Just Put Your Lips Together and Blow Featurette-Line-O-Ramas Featurette-Behind The Scenes-The Kevin Hart Workout Featurette-Face Off Featurette-Ferrell Fighting Featurette-A Date with John Mayer Featurette-Twerking 101 Featurette-Will Ferrell, Gangsta Featurette-Inmates: Out of Control Featurette-Bikers, Babes and Big Bangs Outtakes Deleted Scenes |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2015 | ||
| Running Time | 100:18 (Case: 98) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Ads Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Etan Cohen |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Roadshow Home Entertainment |
Starring |
Will Ferrell Kevin Hart Alison Brie Matt Walsh Gary Owen Craig T. Nelson |
| Case | Standard Blu-ray | ||
| RPI | $29.95 | Music | Christophe Beck |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Unknown |
English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 French Dolby Digital 5.1 German Dolby Digital 5.1 Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 1080p | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English French German Italian Spanish Portuguese Danish Finnish Icelandic Norwegian Swedish |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
A lot of criticisms have been levelled against 2015’s Get Hard, with most critics and audiences calling it offensive and dumb. However, despite its clichéd, slipshod plotting and a lack of truly witty writing, it is arguably entertaining if you enjoy this type of crass, un-PC humour, though it must be stressed that it’s not a movie for everybody. This is a pitch-black, vehemently R-rated comedy, with improvisation, overacting and profanities aplenty in place of clever comedy. And while the resultant feature has its moments, it is rather disappointing considering the talent here.
An LA-based investment fund manager, James King (Will Ferrell) is living the dream, blessed with a gorgeous fiancée, Alissa (Allison Brie), and a large, luxurious home that’s tended to by groundskeepers and maids. Soon after being made partner in his firm by Alissa’s father, Martin (Craig T. Nelson), James is arrested for fraud and sentenced to ten years in San Quentin. Trying to maintain his innocence, James is given thirty days to sort out his affairs before serving time. James dreads the prospect of prison life, ultimately calling upon a car washer named Darnell (Kevin Hart) for help. Even though the squeaky-clean Darnell has never been in the slammer, James assumes that he has a cell block record simply because he’s black. Realising that he has the chance to make some easy cash, Darnell goes along with it, pretending to be an ex-con and creating a prison survival boot camp to toughen James up.
Like most comedies of this ilk, Get Hard is essentially a string of comedic vignettes with a very tenuous through-line to justify the madness. It’s somewhat surprising that Etan Cohen directed the picture since he also scripted Tropic Thunder and Idiocracy, both of which possessed some degree of intelligence, providing clever satire to supplement and enhance the laughs. Get Hard, on the other hand, is purely superficial, and you’ll struggle to find any meaty satire or satirical subtext amid all the rape jokes and crude dialogue. Perhaps the movie’s biggest issue is the lack of a character arc for James, who’s a stuffy, racist rich guy - and the movie asks us to empathise with him. Additionally, the story’s machinations are so perfunctory and half-hearted, not to mention predictable, that the premise might have been better-served as a series of short comedy skits on YouTube.
With its shoddy script and plotting, Get Hard would have been borderline unwatchable if it was an inoffensive PG-13 comedy. However, the production is given a boost by its R rating, which Ferrell lobbied relentlessly to maintain, allowing for salty language and humour which pushes the boundaries of good taste. Performances all-round are fairly workmanlike, with Ferrell again leaning on his trademark oblivious man-child idiot persona. Ferrell knows his strengths, and he plays to him, with the role never removing the actor from his comfort zone. Then again, nobody really expected anything more. Hart, meanwhile, is pretty much just Kevin Hart.
There is not much more which can be said about Get Hard. Humour is subjective, and if there’s not much to analyse beneath a comedy’s shiny exterior, it doesn’t exactly provide strong fodder for an in-depth treatise. As someone who predominantly likes Will Ferrell and enjoys R-rated comedies, I found myself laughing quite a lot throughout the movie’s 100-minute duration in spite of its inherent flaws and hit-and-miss comedy. Those who enjoy the likes of Step Brothers might enjoy it with beer and pizza, but others are advised to tread lightly.
This Blu-ray contains both the theatrical version and an extended cut, which adds about six minutes of footage, none of which is overly note-worthy.
Get Hard was shot digitally, and Roadshow’s 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is fine. Colours are vibrant and true, while sharpness and detail is excellent, remaining solid in both daytime and night-time scenes.
Blacks are true, and there’s nice depth to the image as well. There are no encoding issues to speak of. It would be foolish to expect the transfer to be any better than this.
There are a number of subtitle tracks available for both versions of the movie.
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Roadshow’s release carries a lossless English DTS-HD 5.1 MA track that’s about as good as can be expected for a low-key studio comedy. It’s pertinent to point out that the theatrical cut has a number of different audio options, including French and German Dolby Digital 5.1, but the extended cut only carries an English soundtrack.
Get Hard sounds crisp and well-defined on Blu-ray. Dialogue remains crystal clear, and the score comes through well.
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A light selection of extras, with nothing too substantial.
A static menu, nothing too interesting.
A short behind-the-scenes glimpse at the bathroom scene at the gay restaurant showcasing Ferrell’s improvisational talents on and off-camera. Mildly amusing.
A collection of four line-o-ramas showing the actors improvising. Funny, but hit-and-miss.
An amusing behind-the-scenes featurette which looks at the stunts performed by Hart in the film.
Ferrell and Hart sit down and banter for five minutes. Sporadically amusing.
A small behind-the-scenes look at the choreography for Ferrell’s fight scenes in the movie.
Another short behind-the-scenes featurette, this time looking at Mayer’s cameo appearance.
A short look at how to twerk. Also contains Craig T. Nelson’s dry thoughts on this new craze.
Very short featurette about Ferrell’s peculiar gangster get-up. Also contains some footage of Ferrell and Hart improvising.
More of a YouTube EPK than anything more substantial, this is a standard-order behind-the-scenes look at the movie.
This final behind-the-scenes featurette looks at the Alliance of Whites scene, with all the stunts that were involved in creating the scene.
Three minutes of stuff-ups, goofing around and improv. Nothing too great.
Twenty-five minutes of deleted and extended scenes. Nothing too worthwhile here.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Our local release appears to be a direct port of the American disc, with the exception of a differing array of audio and subtitle options. Buy local.
I found Get Hard to be an amusing enough diversion. Nothing memorable, but I don't regret watching it, and that's coming from someone who paid to see it at the cinema. I guess I'm part of the target demographic. Definitely rent before you buy.
No complaints in terms of video and audio. The extras amount to a string of YouTube videos.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | PlayStation 4, using HDMI output |
| Display | LG 42LW6500. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. This audio decoder/receiver has not been calibrated. |
| Amplification | LG BH7520TW |
| Speakers | LG Tall Boy speakers, 5.1 set-up, 180W |