Title: Night School
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Malcolm D. Lee
Starring: Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Megalyn Echikunwoke
Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins
What It Is: Teddy (Hart) is a guy that’s never graduated high school or gotten his GED. He’s done well so far to avoid it. He had a great job and has a loving and successful girlfriend in Lisa (Echikunwoke). HAD a good job, when his livelihood literally goes up in flames. Now he must go to night school in order to get that GED and better himself. When he runs afoul of his teacher Carrie (Haddish) it’s going to be a long and difficult couple of months.
What We Think: Typically I don’t find Kevin Hart all that funny. To me, he isn’t. Here he works well with Haddish, who I do find quite funny. A lot of the jokes attempted here work. One of the things that really stands out here is the cast as an ensemble. They’re all just very funny. Given the talent here that comes as no surprise. Lee knows what he’s doing and after the wonderful Girls Trip, it’s no surprise he chose Haddish for his lead. I’d like Lee to keep making films that are both funny and interesting.
Our Grade: C-, A comedy that is funny in parts but suffers from too much old hat by Kevin Hart. One of the only things I enjoyed about The Upside was that Hart was restrained. I cannot recommend this film outside of fans of Kevin Hart…of which there are plenty. For those that like their jokes a bit crisper well look elsewhere perhaps. Tiffany Haddish is a star, and she’ll prove so in the coming years. I look forward to watching more of her projects. For now, though a decent comedy has come out and maybe you’ll get a laugh or two out of it.