When Kevin Hart started out, he made himself the butt of most of the jokes in his self-deprecating standup routines. Now, he fancies himself as a Hip Hop mogul type, launching businesses left and right and producing a steady stream of TV shows and films. Unfortunately, this flurry of output in recent years hasn’t all been that great. Earlier this year, Hart starred in “Lift,” which topped the Netflix charts despite being yet another generic streaming flick quickly buried by the tide of “content” spewing forth in the streaming age. Prior to that, Hart tried to bring an air of prestige to his streaming exploits by convincing Wesley Snipes to play his brother in Netflix limited series “True Story.” Sadly for the comedian, Snipes proved to be the best thing about the show.
But none of this has deterred Hart. He’s hosting Peacock chat shows, playing vault hunters in the box office bomb that is “Borderlands,” greenlighting entire slates of projects through his Hartbeat Productions company, and still has time to show off his vintage watches to the Hodinkee crowd. But all while he’s being served wine by his personal sommelier and talking business with Jay-Z, he’s also trying to maintain this image of himself as a kind of lovable underdog figure. After all, it’s a big part of the act that got him to where he is today. So, in 2024, we’re faced with this incongruous figure — part magnate, part dweeb — torn between the image he projected in his early career and the man he wants you to think he is today.
Does anyone else find this as interesting as I do? Apparently not, no. Most of us, it seems, are just happy zoning out to a forgotten Hart effort from 2018.
Night School is a Netflix hit
Do you remember a film starring Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish called “Night School?” Well, Netflix is betting you don’t because it’s just added this 2018 comedy to its expansive catalog and no doubt expects it to benefit from the so-called Netflix effect. This is the phenomenon whereby the streamer dredges up some forgotten movie from years past and streaming audiences treat it as though it were a brand new release (like when they descended upon forgotten fantasy epic “Warcraft” and sent it straight into the Netflix charts).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, “Night School” has quickly found its way into the most-watched charts. In fact, according to streaming viewership tracker FlixPatrol, there’s a pretty sorry state of affairs afoot on the Netflix rankings. “Night School” is currently the number two biggest film in the U.S., trailing just behind the worst-reviewed movie of 2017: “The Emoji Movie.” After arriving on the service on August 11, Hart’s comedy effort debuted in the U.S. films chart at number four the following day, before climbing to the second spot on August 13. Will it dethrone the emojis? If it does, it will have to simultaneously fend off the likes of “White Chicks” and “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.” Couple all this with the fact that “Matt Rife: Lucid — A Crowd Work Special” is currently topping the Netflix TV charts, and it raises the question of whether we truly live in the end times.
Night School’s Netflix success — why?
Perhaps you are tempted to give “Night School” a go, or indeed a second chance following its 2018 debut. After all, it’s just a silly, light-hearted Kevin Hart/Tiffany Haddish buddy comedy — why not join the masses in their collective rewatch? Well, be warned that this is a solid 27-percenter on Rotten Tomatoes. While the Tomatometer is not to be trusted in and of itself, some of the reviews collected on the site speak for themselves.
The Telegraph’s Tim Robey was merciless in his assessment of the film, writing, “The bar is low in the arena of time-killing Kevin Hart vehicles, but if anyone was capable of walking under it, let alone limboing, it’s Hart.” Now, now, Tim, who said there was a bar? Other critics highlighted the film’s “sexual tone-deafness,” while Peter Travers gave us this neat flourish, describing “Night School” as “the worst kind of lazy, laughless, paycheck-begging twaddle.” Also, it’s directed by the guy who gave us the dispiriting IP mishmash that was “Space Jam: A New Legacy.”
Now, in fairness, Empire’s Ben Travis did give “Night School” a positive review, writing, “This is a confident and creepy ghoul-in-the-pool horror”. Oh wait, that was “Night Swim.” Oh well. At least a lot of critics seemed to like Tiffany Haddish’s efforts in “Night School,” even if she couldn’t save the film overall. Oh yeah, by the way, the movie is about a bunch of adults who try to get their GEDs, but by this point, does it really matter? If you remain undeterred, then head over to Netflix and join the great “Night School” rewatch. If you prefer late-stage, mogul Hart, however, check out this clip of him and Dwayne Johnson pretending “Black Adam” was good.