Personal time2022.
Written and directed by John Hamburg.
Starring Kevin Hart, Mark Wahlberg, Regina Hall, Tahj Mowry, Jimmy O. Yang, Carlo Rota, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Andrew Santino, Melanie Minichino, Deborah S. Craig, Thomas Ochoa, Che Tafari, Amentii Sledge, Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, Chau Long, Kieran Roberts, Alexis Rhee, Phillip Brandon, Sharon Gardner, Michelle DeShon, Antione Grant, Kayden Alexander Koshelev, Connie Chen, Brad Lee Wind, Shyaam Karra, Noah Staggs, Carlos Javier Rivera, Prisca Kim, Paul Riley Fox, Jameelah , Amanda Barlow, Sydney Skidmore, Michael Krause, Shira Gross, Diane Delano, John Amos, and Anna Maria Horsford.
SYNOPSIS:
With his family away, a devoted stay-at-home dad enjoys his first time in years as he joins his old party animal friend on a crazy birthday adventure.
Within the first five minutes of Along Came Polly the latest comedy from director John Hamburg Personal timethere’s a hang gliding incident gone wrong, Kevin Hart trips over turtle poop and falls backwards in the kitchen, and Mark Wahlberg is shocked by the size of donkey genitals and can’t help but text about visually. test while the former prepares breakfast for his family.
If that sounds funny to you, then head straight to Netflix. Personally, it’s hard to stomach that someone could remotely think (John Hamburg also wrote the movie) that this passes for comedy. The phrase lowest common denominator is often thrown around a lot to describe similarly vulgar stuff (which isn’t to say that juvenile humor is a bad thing, since, like anything else, it can be done right), but laziness here puts the most of those movies to shame.
Kevin Hart is Sonny Fisher, a family man married to Maya, the architect of Regina Hall (who somehow has almost nothing fun to do here, which should be a crime considering it’s Regina Hall), with two children in primary school (Che Tafari’s Dash and Amentii Sledge’s). Ava). While Maya is the breadwinner for the family, Sonny is more than just a stay-at-home dad; he is the president of the PTA and is involved in all aspects of the school, including directing the upcoming talent show. Sonny, a failed former musician, wants Dash to practice the piano and perform there, but he wants to be a comedian and cites the great Eddie Murphy as an influence.
Sonny is a father who is so obsessed with what he wants and thinks is perfect that it’s no wonder he’s a killjoy. He’s also so dedicated to his family duties and schoolwork that his coworkers tease him into believing that if he doesn’t focus on himself from time to time, he’ll eventually end up as the lonely, divorced school crossing guard Lenore (Diane). Of the year).
However, Sonny wasn’t always so boring. Before walking away from the daredevil of him, YOLO’s best friend Huck (Mark Wahlberg), by association, got into all sorts of reckless shenanigans. Starting a family allowed Sonny to grow up and avoid this possible bad influence. Meanwhile, Maya wants to take the kids on vacation to visit her grandparents, and everyone encourages Sonny to stay home and enjoy the time, since he deserves a break. Huck’s birthday (traditionally celebrated by doing something extremely chaotic) is also coming up, which means this could be a good opportunity for the two to reconnect and see each other for the first time in a decade or so.
The best that can be said about Personal time is that while it’s obvious where all these characters will end up and what they’ll learn in the process, it’s unpredictably wild from moment to moment. Every time the movie seems like it’s going to settle in one place to focus on the laughs, something else suddenly pops into the picture, with the characters shooting elsewhere. Unfortunately, much of the same lazy humor pervades most of these admittedly hilarious situations.
As Sonny and Huck hop on a party tour bus with the latter’s younger, louder friends, they grapple with debt, survival (there’s a scene involving a lion that’s outrageous), and revenge (Sonny suspects the client His richest wife is putting the moves on her, especially since he shows up at the vacation spot). These elements usually lead to our goofy protagonists finding themselves in trouble, including a scare involving a turtle that’s easily the funniest thing here (it’s referenced on the poster for a reason). But in between all of that are scenes of Kevin Hart shitting on his wife’s boss’s bed (and that’s just one example of how amazingly lazy the jokes here can be).
There’s also not much to hold onto when it comes to the message here, which is as simple as being and allowing others to be themselves while striving for a healthy balance of mischief and duties in adulthood. The worst part is that Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg don’t always get along; they each have some occasional fun individually or chemistry with each other, but nothing about Personal time it encourages one to want them to re-team for a future comedy with a better script.
Mark Wahlberg almost feels misunderstood; he’s appropriate for the adrenaline junkie and party aspect of the character, but doesn’t necessarily land jokes on him. As for Kevin Hart, he’s just doing his usual routine. The antics found in our are sometimes entertaining, but for the most part, there are better ways to spend your time.
Flashing Myth Rating – Movie: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the reviews editor for Flickering Myth. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at [email protected]
