Night School
Directed by: Malcolm D. Lee
Written by: Kevin Hart & Harry Ratchford & Joey Wells & Matthew Kellard and Nicholas Stoller and John Hamburg
Starring: Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Taran Killam, Rob Riggle, Romany Malco, Al Madrigal, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Anne Winters, Fat Joe, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Ben Schwartz, Keith David, Yvonne Orji
Comedy - 111 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 26 Sep 2018
Written by: Kevin Hart & Harry Ratchford & Joey Wells & Matthew Kellard and Nicholas Stoller and John Hamburg
Starring: Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Taran Killam, Rob Riggle, Romany Malco, Al Madrigal, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Anne Winters, Fat Joe, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Ben Schwartz, Keith David, Yvonne Orji
Comedy - 111 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 26 Sep 2018
Schools provide a rich setting for ensemble casts. Students come in all shapes and sizes, can come from any background and work toward any future, and the ironic twist is the students don’t even have to be kids. An open buffet like this is ripe for comedies and has been mined before, especially in the 1980s. My personal favorites include Better Off Dead and The Breakfast Club. Rodney Dangerfield nailed the older student twist in Back to School and Tom Hanks even tried the sweeter version of that character more recently in Larry Crowne. Kevin Hart thought it would be funny go back to high school for his GED, stuff the room with a bunch of oddball misfits, and hire the hot hands behind Girls Trip to see what would happen.
The set up has all the ingredients to succeed; unfortunately, Night School is a colossal bore with a lead character the audience doesn’t like very much and a story which veers away from the film’s most promising parts - time with the misfits. For an audience to connect with a slapstick comedy, it is vital they connect with the main character - really root for him or her. I wasn’t really rooting for Teddy Walker (Hart, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie). Teddy is not overtly mean, but he’s overly materialistic and suffers from crushing narcissism. Teddy loves him some Teddy. During the SATs, high school Teddy creates a massive scene when he realizes he cannot understand the test and storms out of the room knowing he’ll be just fine; he has a mouth which can talk him into anywhere.
The set up has all the ingredients to succeed; unfortunately, Night School is a colossal bore with a lead character the audience doesn’t like very much and a story which veers away from the film’s most promising parts - time with the misfits. For an audience to connect with a slapstick comedy, it is vital they connect with the main character - really root for him or her. I wasn’t really rooting for Teddy Walker (Hart, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie). Teddy is not overtly mean, but he’s overly materialistic and suffers from crushing narcissism. Teddy loves him some Teddy. During the SATs, high school Teddy creates a massive scene when he realizes he cannot understand the test and storms out of the room knowing he’ll be just fine; he has a mouth which can talk him into anywhere.
Flash forward 17 years and Teddy seems to be doing alright. He is an ace salesman hawking grills at BBQ City and he is ready to propose to his gorgeous and business-savvy girlfriend, Lisa (Megalyn Echikunwoke, A Good Day to Die Hard). Teddy’s relationship with Lisa is the script’s next head-scratching problem. Not only is Teddy merely likable, not lovable, he does not understand the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with. Any man ready to drop to one knee knows what his girl values, stands for, and wants out of life. Teddy doesn’t have a clue. Convinced Lisa is just like himself, obsessed with bling and cash, Teddy lives far above his means and bumbles into nightmare social situations to avoid spending money. Some may relish the comedic lewdness of plucking one’s pubic hair to mar a restaurant meal only to get out of the check. Others will empathize with the unlucky waiter forced to deal with confrontation.
Teddy is also as clumsy. Channeling Mr. Bean and Clark Griswold, Teddy fireballs himself into unemployment, can’t get another gig because he is a high school dropout, and reluctantly winds up in night school at his alma mater as a last resort. According to Night School, Atlanta, Georgia is the smallest town in the state. Not only is the principal a former enemy (Taran Killam, Ted 2), but the teacher is someone Teddy got into a road rage shouting match with on his way to enroll. By the way, to avoid the principal who only wants to impede and humiliate Teddy, why not enroll in night school at any other of the dozens of other area schools or centers? Must it really have to be his old school or nothing?
Tiffany Haddish is Carrie, the somewhat no-nonsense / insult spewer who will shepherd this night school class of nutballs toward their GEDs. This is Haddish’s first big role after Girls Trip and director Malcolm D. Lee, who also directed Girls Trip, wants you to remember how much you loved that movie. The first time we see her, Haddish says, “booty hole”, just like she did as Dina in her breakout role. Will this be her catchphrase for now on? Night School may carry over the director, breakout star, and crew from Girls Trip, but it left everything behind - especially the laughs.
There are a few moments to chuckle at, courtesy of the supporting characters in the class, but none of it ties together to create any sort of enjoyable ensemble. Rob Riggle is the dumb jock, Romany Malco is the paranoid blue collar man, Al Madrigal is that same waiter I mentioned before (see how small Atlanta is), and there is a cloistered housewife yearning to break free, as well as a rebellious teenager. It’s all very Breakfast Club - they’re all different, but they will realize deep down, they’re all the same. Hijinks ensue - they try to steal a test, one of them falls off a roof, and one of them Skypes in from prison.
Perhaps the main reason Night School comes off stale and empty is we’ve seen Kevin Hart play Teddy before. In the Ride Along films, it is Ice Cube who must smack him around to act right. In Central Intelligence, it is The Rock who has to carry him around to act right. In Night School, Tiffany Haddish must literally Ultimate Fighter his ass to get Teddy to pull his head out of his rectum and act right. Even Chevy Chase couldn’t make us like Clark Griswold over and over again; there really were only two-and-a-half decent Vacation films. Night School confronts learning disabilities and almost treats the subject with respect, but rather than waste too much time working through Teddy’s particular issues, the script would rather get him back into he fighting ring with Haddish as she wails on him screaming, “Focus!” That is a sure fire way to get someone ready for a big test. Drive past the one stoplight town that must be Atlanta and look elsewhere for your laughs.
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