(trailer review) - Die Hart

Clean into the middle of the pandemic and worldwide (kinda) lockdown period, Kevin Hart drops a trailer for a new film which has a title riff of "Die Hard", is a comedy and starring John Travolta...colour me intrigued!

Going by the trailer, it appears as though, Die Hart is about Kevin Hart basically playing a fictional version of himself trying to become an action star akin to Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson in which, I guess in real life, where he has always been the sidekick and comic relief in films like Ride Along, Jumanji and Central Intelligence, he is tired of being just the sidekick and believes he can be an action star.  To become that action star, Kevin seeks help from (John Travolta) who will push Kevin to his limits to become the hard as nails action hero he desires to be, but can Kevin handle it?

This looks funny. Kevin is funny and although his schtick can be annoying at times and played out, this film actually does come across as funny due to Kevin's ridiculous nature, like when he tells stand up jokes.  The bit at the end with the building had me laughing out loud, so i'm definitely involved.  I'm just wondering if this is a film or a series.

Directed by Eric Appel and starring Kevin Hart, John Travolta, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jean Reno and Josh Hartnett.

(trailer review) - Jumanji: The Next Level

So, after I had watched the latest edition to the Jumanji franchise (Jamanji: Welcome to the Jungle or Jumanji 2) and after it had done really well, they decided to do a sequel making this a Trilogy.  I'm not sure if they will do another sequel as that is likely to depend on the outcome of this one and if this one is anything like the last, we might get just that.
I enjoyed the last one as I thought it was a surprising success, story wise.  I liked the characters and the jokes and as this looks just as goofy and fun, this has the potential to do better than the last one.  I mean, the whole "body swap" element has not got old yet and provides good laughs.  My only reservation is that, all that sand and no Jungle? Upsetting, but lets see what they do with this.

Directed by Jake Kasdan and starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Danny Glover & Danny DeVito

(film review) - Ride Along

Kevin Hart has been doing a lot of films and people have been gravitating to this comedian's films like crazy.  For me it's a matter of, is this Kevin Hart playing a character as Kevin Hart or is this Kevin Hart playing a character as Kevin Hart playing a character in a movie? If that makes any sense.  Yes he is a funny comedian, but is he funny in these films? SHould he be funny in these films? Is he always the same funny guy character in all of these films including this one? Hmmm....

Ride Along is about a detective named James Payton (Ice Cube) who is on a undercover operation only to find that a lot of the crimes he has come across has been orchestrated by a man named Omar who no one has ever seen.  To make matters worse as James is chasing a ghost, James' sister is about to marry her boyfriend, Ben 'Blackhammer' Barber (Kevin Hart), a man he cannot stand and doesn't think he is worthy of her.  To add the salt into the wounds, Ben is a security guard trying to progress to becoming an officer, but James doesn't think that Ben is cut out as a man, a man for his sister or as a cop and schemes of a way to foil his plans, embaress him, so that his sister leaves him by showing him, what a cop's life is really like and take down Omar by taking him on a Ride Along.

This film is goofy, funny and basically exactly what you'd expect from a comedy.  A bit like watching a Will Farrell movie, you know what to expect.  With that said, the comedic beats land well and this film is generally funny and goofy, with witty dialogue and decent action.  Ice Cube playing the mean, angry big brother cop goes without saying and Kevin Hart playing, the funny guy, basically Kevin Hart gels well.

Nothing too spectacular in terms of directing, script, screenplay, acting, cinematography, but a nice little popcorn flick for you to hangout to with a couple of friends.  If anything, the computer game sequences are great.  Especially the game to real life adaption, when you see it, you will understand what i mean.

Have a watch, you might just chuckle, if not, laugh out loud!