A sad reaction to Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart's 'Get Hard'

[W!nston]

A sad reaction to Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart's 'Get Hard'
Hitfix |Gregory Ellwood | March 25, 2015

There is a moment that really stuck with me from the interview HitFix's Louis Virtel conducted with Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart for "Get Hard" which posted yesterday.

Virtel asks, "You are both very smart and funny people. During the scene in the movie where you kind of do a mockingly effeminate voice [to Hart] and you gag at a dick as though it's the worst thing that can happen to a straight guy [to Ferrell], in a gay situation, did you think: this is mildly mean spirited or at the very least, a little bit dated?"

Before Hart responds, the camera holds on Ferrell's face for a just a moment. Ferrell doesn't look annoyed. He doesn't look angry. He isn't trying to force a smile. He just looks sort of sad.

"Get Hard," which Drew McWeeny reviewed out of SXSW, is the directorial debut of longtime screenwriter Etan Cohen ("Tropic Thunder") and has a pretty simple set up. An obnoxiously rich white guy names James (Ferrell) gets framed for money laundering and is given a 10-year prison sentence in a maximum-security prison. With just 30 days until he has to report, Ferrell's character recruits Darnell (Hart), the owner of the car washing business in his company's headquarters, to toughen him up for jail.

From the moment James brings the subject of his incarceration up Darnell immediately goes into a diatribe about he's going to get essentially man-raped. Poked, prodded, etc. James won't be able to escape it. And, the focus on this subject matter does not stop. For at least 20 straight minutes (and possibly more) James and Darnell only deal with his fear of being forced to have sex with men in prison. Eventually, what should have been his biggest concern -- getting beat up or potentially stabbed -- is addressed, but the no. 1 issue is always the fear of being forced to have gay sex. Strangely, the word rape is barely used to describe this. It's all presented as though he'd literally have no choice but to consent. At one point in the movie, Darnell takes James to a gay bar (clearly an attempt to recreate the infamous Abbey in West Hollywood without shooting there) and makes him go into a stall and attempt to suck another man's penis so he'll be prepared for what awaits him. James breaks down and cries and the image of a real penis becomes a recurring negative throughout the film.

Perhaps if it was one joke or even the context of one particular scene it wouldn't stand out as much, but this storyline never seems to end. And, frankly, I do not see, no matter what the filmmakers intentions were, how it's not homophobic. The movie also has been criticized for some of its racial depictions, and that's potentially an entirely different conversation that I was sadly too distracted to focus on.

As I watched this bit continue from scene to scene to scene the laughter from what was mostly a filler audience* did not dissipate. Clearly, this "played" to many in the 500+ theater, but there were also sections that were very quiet. I was in one of them. As an openly gay man who has worked in the industry for over 15 years I didn't find myself getting angry about what I was watching. Instead, I just started trying to figure out how this could have happened. How did it even get this far? I might have expected this sort of material from lesser talents, but a movie that starred and was produced by Ferrell? How did this happen?

SOURCE

 

[Tippah]

wow, that's sad no interest in seeing it.

 

[DarthKitsune]

I wasn't going to see it because Will Ferrell's chest hair makes me head itch, plus I'm not a huge fan of Kevin Hart.

 

[regnomraw]

Boring.

 

[luvmuslmen]

Will Ferrell may be well known, but I'm sorry to say that I have not seen one movie of his that I have liked. They are all pretty stupid, imho, so this one doesn't surprise me, either. Sorry Will: YOU ARE NOT FUNNY! :duh:

 

[W!nston]

Will Ferrell may be well known, but I'm sorry to say that I have not seen one movie of his that I have liked. They are all pretty stupid, imho, so this one doesn't surprise me, either. Sorry Will: YOU ARE NOT FUNNY! :duh:

That's pretty much how I feel about Adam Sandler movies except I've never watched a single one. The only funny thing he ever did on SNL was the first time he did Opera Guy but after that first time it wasn't funny.

Will Farrel has done some funny stuff. Did you see "Land of the Lost"? You might laugh at some of that one, maybe, lol.

How about "Stranger Than Fiction"? It wasn't a comedy role even though there were some laughs. He was very good in that.

Then there was "Elf". You cannot polish a turd and that movie was a big 'ol turd.

Try "Land of the Lost" and "Stranger Than Fiction" and you might find them interesting if not hysterically funny.

 

[jjjack]

Ferrell

How did the movie get that far?

If it’s anything like the music biz, execs are so hyper-focused on profits and so afraid of flops that pandering to the lowest common denominator literally becomes the only consideration. And when I say lowest, I mean rock bottom.

Mel Brooks used to hit you with 10 attempts at humor, hoping to score once. When he scored, he scored pretty big, and I eventually had to admire his persistence. With Ferrell, the ratio is more like 100 attempts to 1 score. Once in a while he really nails a caricature---like the absurdly egotistical news anchor who also plays jazz flute (because he’s “multitalented,” you see). Watching him step off a night club stage then walk from one tabletop to another, knocking over people’s drinks, all the while piping away on his jazz flute like Pan the Forest Idiot was one of the funniest things I ever saw. Unfortunately, most of his shtick is about as obnoxiously belabored and unfunny as his old cheerleading parodies on SNL.

Someone who turned homophobia itself into a parody was Norm MacDonald. At first, his routines seemed traditionally homophobic, but slightly funny even so. But once he became so obsessed with the issue that his own sexuality was obviously suspect, he seemed to enjoy that somewhat awkward self-reversal even more and riffed on it repeatedly. For that reason, among others, I always found him funnier than Will Ferrell. The idea that MacDonald might be some sort of str8 “catch” for any kind of woman became more and more far-fetched, which made his negatively oriented obsession with gay sex all the funnier---especially when he laughed at his own tendency to overcompensate for feelings of inadequacy. The obsession with gay sex always turned into something more like fascination with it. When that fact was pointed out to him, he usually just giggled.

 

[Nephlim]

Still chuckle laughing at Will's nude scene.

 

[cban]

How has Will Ferrell had a movie career?