In my personal opinion, Kevin Hart loves to play goofballs who overact and walk into just about every situation like a stand up comic. He’s done that formula multiple times with the Ride Along movies, Get Hard, Central Intelligence, and now Night School which seems to find him into borderline self-parody.
Hart plays Teddy Walker, a high school dropout turned barbecue salesman who’s dating a beautiful girl (Megalyn Echikunwoke). He tries to keep up the elaborate facade of convincing her he’s successful at his job but leaves out one detail; he didn’t graduate high school. He gets sound advice from his friend and financial advisor (Ben Schwartz) that he can come work for his firm if he obtains his GED.
Naturally, Teddy enrolls in classes that are taught by a teacher with an iron fist (Tiffany Haddish). He also runs into his former rival turned principal (Taran Killiam) who is determined to see him fail. In the meantime, Teddy joins a group of oddballs all aiming to get their GEDs. Rob Riggle, Romany Malco, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and rapper Fat Joe are the other students.
The movie finds Hart in one idiotic stunt after another in an attempt to pass, but none is more ridiculous than one involving the team trying to steal the answers to their GED. Their operation leads to a climax that is downright gross and clunky. Another incident involves Teddy working at a chicken restaurant that is Christian-themed and making him wear a chicken suit to attract customers. I think Hart should’ve repented at this point when he read the script.
Night School is a movie that flunks time and time again. Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish have done better and can do better, but they’re often stranded in material that makes them seem desperate for a laugh. Not to mention, it’s a movie that relies too much on racial jokes and sight gags to make the laughs work instead of resorting to something more natural.
The supporting cast does offer some good work in a few individual scenes, but for the most part, the laughs are few and far between. Plus, the ending likes to pull a punch by going dead serious at the end like it was kidding itself and us all along.
I hate to fail this movie given the talent involved, but it just doesn’t make the grade.
Grade: C-
(Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, language, some drug references and violence.)
