# Get Hard - Blu-ray Review



## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=47722[/img] 
*Title: Get Hard* 

*Movie:* :3stars:
*Video:* :4.5stars:
*Audio:* :4stars: 
*Extras:* :4stars: 

*HTS Overall Score:*80




[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=47730[/img]*Summary*
Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell, that pretty much says it all right there. Much like Vince Vaughn you know what you’re going to get before you even go into the movie. Lots of gross out gags, insults, Will Ferrell acting like a man child and Keven Hart being the nice guy who befriends white folks (e.g. “The Wedding Ringer”). I like Will Ferrell, as I grew up with in the 90s and early 2000s when the man’s movies were stinking funny. I watched “Old School”, “Night at the Roxbury”, “Anchorman” etc till I was blue in the face. The man knows how to seriously play slapstick to the extreme. The down side to watch Will “act” is the fact that he’s a hit or miss character. Some movies will make you cry laughing and others make you want to perform Hari Kari on yourself afterwards (“Semi-Pro”), and you never know which one it will be going into a movie. Kevin Hart on the other hand is someone I can barely tolerate. A comedian who’s made his money off of telling short people jokes, he’s ridiculously in your face and always plays the naïve little baby who screams like a shrieking girl when anything goes wrong. “Get Hard” lands firmly in the middle of the spectrum with some seriously funny jokes, but at the same time, some very flat jokes. 

James King (Will Ferrell) has it all. A beautiful mansion, a beautiful girlfriend (Allison Brie), a great job in the stock market, a great boss (Craig T. Nelson) until it all comes crashing down around him. Accused of embezzling funds from the company he works out, James is sentenced to 10 hard years in a maximum security prison. Desperate to stay alive, the naively racist broker hires, Darnell (Kevin Hart), a young black man who owns the car wash service in his building, to teach him how to survive prison. The only problem is, Darnell has never been to prison. Being that he needs the $30,000 that James has promised him for his services, Darnell bites the bullet and begins to train the chubby old man how to survive in prison.

As you probably guessed, things don’t go exactly as planned. James isn’t a wildly teachable guy, so Darnell has to pull out all the stops and stereotypes to try and get this boy hard for the yard (yes I just said that). We have a fake prison riot, lessons on how to bat for the other team to survive, how to make a shiv, the whole nine yards. The only thing they really DON’T try is the most logical. Find out who has framed him and see if they can exonerate his name before our boy James ends up someone’s girlfriend in prison. Well, this FINALLY occurs to them before the movie ends and now we have a heist on our hands, as James and Darnell try to break into his boss’s private yacht and steal back a computer full of incriminating evidence before he has to go to San Quentin next morning. 

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=47762[/img]First thing you have to know. The plot for “Get Hard” isn’t that important. Sure we get to figure out how they clear James’ name, but that’s really beside the point. We’re here to laugh at inane humor and watch the two comedians play off each other, and there’s certainly plenty of that. Will Ferrell plays James King much like he does most of his other characters. Basically a gigantic (literally, moo cow Will is one tall guy), ignorant, man child. He’s brainlessly racist, I mean he instantly wants to hire Darnell to be his prison guide because of the fact that Darnell is a black man working a low end job, and punctuates his frustration with a rather comically unique blend of know words (he reminds me of the convenience store owner in “Bad Boys”, blending the wrong phrases at the wrong time). Kevin Hart is actually surprisingly palatable here. He plays his normal tiny baby routine, but he’s a little toned down in comparison to other times, and since Will is taking the main screen it makes it much easier to digest. The two comedians had enough adlibbing to last a lifetime according to behind the scenes interviews and it really looked like the guys worked well together.

The movie isn’t going to be for everyone. It’s rude, it’s crude, it’s gross out humor (there’s actually one scene that ACTUALLY grossed me out, but it was only a minute or two and wasn’t replicated again in the movie, thank goodness) and if you liked movies like “The Heat” it will give you an idea what to expect. I laughed myself silly at times, but other times the jokes fell flat as a pancake. Will trying to come up with his shiv for prison, or trying to get down with his trash talking had me pausing the movie and tearing up, but then we’d follow it up with a joke that just didn’t seem funny. I had a decent enough time watching the goofball comedy, and it’s certainly worth a rental, but not much past that in my opinion. 




*Rating:* 

Rated R for pervasive crude and sexual content and language, some nudity, and drug material



*Video* :4.5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=47738[/img]Warner’s 1.78:1 AVC encoded Blu-ray presentation of “Get Hard” is easily the best feature of the movie. Full of bright and sometimes garish colors, “Get Hard” is bright and digitally shiny as can be for a new release. Color saturation is nice and high, but not overdone and the there is a very slight warm push to the entire picture. Detail is impeccably strong with more than enough fine detail to satisfy anyone. It’s becoming obvious that Ferrell is getting up there in age, and the brilliantly detailed Blu-ray presentation does nothing to hide that fact (something other actors try to overcome with digital smoothing to erase wrinkles). Black levels stay inky blank with solid shadow detail and only a few moments of the annoying crush. I know I noticed a hint of banding in one of the prison “riot” sequences, but that was so brief I almost question myself seeing it. The rest of the disc looks incredibly clear and devoid of any compression artifacts or digital manipulation. A great looking disc that is on par with other high budget new releases. 









*Audio* :4stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=47746[/img]The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track that comes with disc is pretty much what you would expect for a high budget comedy. The dialog is clean and distortion free, well balanced with the hip hop sound track, and the dynamic range is fairly solid. Surround usage is impressive with the afore mentioned hip hop score and there are plenty of ambient noises to fill them out. The only thing that I felt was a bit lacking was the bass response. It’s a decidedly front heavy mix that wouldn’t really call for a lot of LFE or surround usage, but there were a few scenes that would have really benefited from some better bass, especially that explosion near the end. It just felt a little weak and neutered. A great comedy track for sure, “Get Hard’s” great sounding audio is just another feather in the technical cap for Warner. 






*Extras* :4stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=47754[/img]• Just Put Your Lips Together and Blow
• GET HARD Line-O-Ramas
• The Kevin Hart Workout
• Face Off with Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart
• Ferrell Fighting
• A Date with John Mayer
• Twerking 101 
• Will Ferrell, Gangsta
• Inmates: Out of Control
• Bikers, Babes and Big Bangs
• Gag Reel
• Deleted Scenes






*Overall:* :4stars:

Will and Kevin certainly have their moments in the film, and I have to laugh myself silly watching and re watching Kevin Hart play a trio of inmates in the yard that can only be described as pure genius, but it really boils down to the fact that the movie is too uneven to be considered great comedy. I enjoyed the ride, and certainly had more fun than not, but the movie is definitely what I call “rental material”. The video is exquisite, and the audio is very solid, but the heavy array of great extras is what really makes the package nicer than normal. If you’re a fan of the Ferrell or Hart, it’s a solid little comedy, recommended as a rental for those of you who like Blue humor. 

*Additional Information:*

Starring: Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Alison Brie, Craig T. Nelson
Directed by: Etan Cohen
Written by: Jay Martel, Ian Roberts
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1 (Theatrical and Extended), French (Theatrical), Spanish (Theatrical) DD 5.1
Studio: Warner
Rated: R
Runtime: 100 minutes (theatrical) / 106 minutes (unrated)
Blu-ray Release Date: June 30th 2015 




*Buy Get Hard On Blu-ray at Amazon*


*Recommendation: Rental ​*








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