Night School: How do Hart and Haddish let everyone else steal the show?

Count me among those who think Kevin Hart is a really funny guy that is yet to find a really funny movie role. Are there a lot of us?

I don’t know, but when Hart first appeared on Comedy Central back in the late 90s, I thought he was a great storyteller and knew how to deliver a punchline. I was really happy to see him get his big break as part of that Shaquille O’Neal comedy event a few years back. It made Hart every rapper and athlete’s favorite comedian and that led to where he is today.

Unfortunately, since making the jump to movie stardom, Kevin Hart is still looking for the role that makes the most of his talent.

It’s not that he has never been charming. It’s just that you always leave the theater thinking what you just saw should have been better.

He plays Teddy, a high school dropout living in Atlanta. Let’s talk about Kevin Hart’s weird Atlanta thing for a second. By my count, this is the third time Kevin Hart has played a character born and raised in Atlanta. Some of that has to do with his relationship with producer Will Packer, the Atlanta resident and super producer that takes any opportunity he can to give Georgia’s film industry work. That’s fine. No need to move the production out of Atlanta, but can’t Packer or his writers throw in a line about Hart’s characters moving to Atlanta later in life?

Kevin Hart doesn’t sound like he has lived in the south for five minutes, let alone was born and raised here. Hart sounds like a dude born and raised in Philadelphia, because that’s what he is. This Atlanta act is like when Arnold Schwarzenegger would play a cop in Chicago and a character would say something to him like, “Walter, your dad was the best cop this city ever knew,” and then Arnold would answer with some loud, Eastern European roar like we were all supposed to go, “Oh yeah, I have no trouble believing this guy grew up in Bucktown!”

Anyway, Teddy is a great grill salesman. His girlfriend is an interior decorator in high demand across the city. She makes great money. He does too, just not as much, but he will never let her know that. So Teddy drives a Porsche he can’t afford. He insists on paying for every meal. He is constantly stretched to the limits of his finances.

After the store he works at blows up in a propane accident, Teddy’s boss takes his insurance check and closes up shop.

Teddy can’t find work without his GED, so he returns to his own school hoping to get a principal to cross some Ts, dot some Is and give him GED status.

Turns out Teddy’s old high school is now run by his high school nemesis, Stuart (SNL’s Taran Killam). He tells Teddy that he would never do him any favors. Teddy’s only option is to enroll in night school classes taught by Carrie (Tiffany Haddish).

I’m going to stop the recap here and get into what does and doesn’t work. What does work is any moment we’re with Teddy and his night school classmates. Director Malcolm D. Lee rounded out that group with great comedians and improvisers like Romany Malco (The 40 Year Old Virgin), Rob Riggle (Step Brothers) and Mary Lynn Rajskub (24). The group’s interactions are, for the most part, genuinely funny.

In fact, it is the supporting cast that really carries Night School. It’s not that Hart and Haddish don’t have chemistry. It is just that most of the best lines and gags are reserved for someone else. I am not sure why that is.

One of the things that really does not work is the flashback to the day Teddy dropped out of high school. I get that when you are paying Kevin Hart to star in your movie, you want him on screen as much as possible, but this scene was just silly.

Lee didn’t put Hart, dressed down to show him as a 17-year-old, in a scene with other 17-year-olds. He put Hart, dressed down to show him as a 17-year-old, in a scene with a bunch of other 40-year-old adults dressed down to show they are 17-year-olds. It just sucked me out of the movie right away.

I also couldn’t help but walk out of Night School wondering how much Hart is trying to follow in Adam Sandler’s footsteps. I, for the most part, like Hart a lot more as a leading man than I do Sandler, but Hart seems very comfortable trying to take over the title of king of the completely branded movie.

Whereas Adam Sandler cannot turn a corner in his films without bumping into someone holding a Dunkin’ Donuts cup or planning a vacation at a Sandals resort, this movie is full of people calling cars by their make and model name and grills get lingering shots on their brand medallion.

Subtle product placement is clearly not the name of this game.

Night School is fine. I don’t recommend you avoid it. There are some truly funny moments, but Hart is an incredibly funny guy. Haddish is an incredibly funny woman. It’s hard not to walk out of the theater thinking their combined power should have produced something much better.