It’s hard to think of two funnier people in Hollywood today than Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. The former is perhaps more beloved than any other comic out there, thanks to a long career of lead roles in comedy classics like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Elf, Taladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and Blades of Glory. Meanwhile, the latter has experienced a meteoric rise to fame in recent years, using films like Think Like A Man, Ride Along, and About Last Night to go from high-grossing stand-up comedian to A-list actor.

As the two joined forces for this month’s Get Hard, they were kind enough to set aside some time to answer questions from college journalists in a 15-minute conference call. Here’s what they had to say:

Q: As two very successful comedians, is there anything you guys learned from one another while working on the film?

Kevin Hart: The one thing I’ve taken from Will is his approach to his craft. He’s very professional, very humble; he’s a guy that really appreciates everything. He’s grounded.
Will Ferrell: Yes, I think Kevin and I share the same philosophy in terms of, you know we like to have a good time, but we’re thankful for what we’re doing professionally. But at the same time we try and stay grounded and work hard.

Q: What was it like working with director Etan Cohen, given it was his first time directing?

WF: It was a great experience working with Etan. You know, we surrounded him with a really good team, in terms of the first a.d. [Assistant Director] and director of photography. So, he was allowed to do what his strong point is, which is monitoring the comedy. You know, it’s a real benefit when you can have a writer as strong as Etan feeding you extra jokes.
KH: From my side, I’ll pick up off what Will said. We got lucky, we got a guy who had his first time directing, though he had been behind the camera a lot, so he soaked up this knowledge. He was protected by a team of producers, who knew what they were doing as well. All in all, everyone helped each other. Etan’s confidence grew as the movie progressed and we got a final product because of it, so I tip my hat to him. He did a good job.

Q: How did Cohen end up taking the reins on Get Hard, and what made you want to work with him?

WF: Yes, Etan is obviously an established comedy writer here in Hollywood, given his track record. And I think he was just in town on a short list of guys who were ready to direct a feature; he had done a short film that had attracted some notice. But when you talked to him about a script, in terms of his articulation on story, he sounded like he was a director. And I think that’s what kind of gave us the confidence to want to work with him. 

Plus, he also, in like a 1920s or 1930s way, wore those old khaki director pants and spoke through a bullhorn, so those things really make him appear as a director.

Q: What originally made you guys want to do this movie?

WF: Well, this was an idea that my friend Adam McKay had for a long time, and we kept talking about it. So we kind of generated the idea from our company. And as we started digging into the casting, and we thought it would be really great to pair up with, well, the first name we started with: Kevin. So we called him up, pitched him the idea, and lucky for us he was into it. He kind of helped right away in the development process, from the script to his character. That’s how it all kind of came together.

Q: Was there much improvisation on set, or did you guys mostly stick to script?

KH: Well, there was something on every page of the script, of course, but from that foundation, there was room for us to move around. We had great writers on the film, and they left room for us to explore our characters and play around.

Q: Why is it important to have the ability to laugh at some of the important social tensions you guys touch on in Get Hard?

WF: I think it’s a great way to explore our differences, once you kind of get through the chatter, we kind of realize how similar we all are. And you get that by examining through social comedy and you’re just able to point out how silly these attitudes are, that seem to pop up from time to time.
KH: Well I can’t say it better than that.

Q: We’re in the age of remakes as a culture. So as a comedy duo, if you guys could team up again and remake a classic comedy, which ones would you do?

KH: Turner and Hooch!
WF: Well, Kevin’s choice is Turner and Hooch.
KH: Turner and Hooch! It would be amazing!
WF: I believe that was Tom Hanks with a dog.
KH: Yeah, you playing Hooch!
WF: Okay, I want Hooch. All right, my choice … oh remake of a classic comedy! Kramer vs. Kramer!

Q: When you guys were preparing for the role, were there any prison movies or television shows that helped you prepare for the role?

KH: For me, yes, I watched a lot of Mask and Sanford and Son. It really put me in the position where I was ready to come to set every day and it got me ready for every day.
WF: I watched a lot of shows on the cooking channel. It didn’t help me at all. It was actually just a waste of time and if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have watched those shows.

Read Isaac's review of the film GET HARD here: http://www.nufec.com/blog/isaac-feldberg-on-get-hard

Looking back on Get Hard in a few decades, one can only hope it’s viewed with the same derision and shock that is currently allotted for films like D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation. That a mainstream Hollywood comedy still succumbs to gay-panic humor in 2015 is enough to turn your stomach.

It simply boggles the mind that Get Hard managed to spring from the horrendously misguided minds of director/co-writer Etan Cohen and co-writers Jay Martel and Ian Roberts all the way to theaters without anyone noticing that its comic premise was entirely built on a foundation of racism and homophobia. 

However, it might be better to remain confounded by that than to contemplate the alternative: that people did notice and thought, especially in a cultural climate newly shaped by Ferguson and Black Lives Matter, that this nasty, dated waste of celluloid would get a pass. 

Certainly, were Ferrell and Hart not in the leading roles, Get Hard would not have been backed so enthusiastically by Warner Bros. Outside of their involvement, the movie really has nothing going for it. Brie, a tremendously appealing comic actress, is trapped in the humiliating role of a sex kitten, eternally clad in lingerie or tight outfits and serving no purpose outside of eye candy. (As if Get Hard hadn’t racked up enough offenses already, it’s casually sexist throughout.) Cohen’s direction is as ugly as his script, ensuring the film can’t even produce a good-looking scene. And even the editing and music choices reek of laziness.

With all that in mind, the only question left unanswered is: how on Earth did Ferrell and Hart, two of the funniest people alive, end up in this mess? Together, they must have thought they would be unstoppable and, indeed, there’s one scene where the two play off each other so terrifically that it makes the vileness of the rest of the film all the more obvious. But both actors need to stop letting their agents read their scripts – or better yet, fire their agents. Enough career moves like Get Hard could sink even the mightiest of performers. 

Instead of saying anything of value about modern race relations in America, cultural perceptions of sexuality in a time more accepting of non-straight orientations or even the wealth divide, Get Hard jeers. It points its finger, gives a contemptuous smile and asks us to join it in denigrating huge swaths of people for attributes that haven’t been admissible punch-lines in decades. It is the public’s duty to wholeheartedly reject that repugnant invitation, even (or is it especially?) with actors as compulsively lovable as Ferrell and Hart delivering it. 

Grade: F

January is usually a dump month for cinematic turkeys that no studio wants to hold onto, so imagine my surprise when, in watching Project Almanac, I discovered a solid – not game-changing, but certainly solid – genre pic with a capable cast and enough sci-fi gobbledygook to more than pad out its runtime.

As directed by first-timer Dean Israelite and penned by Jason Harry Pagan and Andrew Deutschman, this found-footage pic, about teens who discover plans for a time-travel device and decide to build it, is an agreeable mash-up of Primer (for all the head-scratching that comes about as a result of their “temporal relocations”), Chronicle (for its progressively serious tone and, moreover, its sometimes unconvincing presentation) and, interestingly enough, Project X (seeing as much of the film is spent watching narrow-minded teens exploit time travel to achieve their dreams of success and popularity).

The mixture works for the first two-thirds, with nerdy David (Jonny Weston, endearingly awkward if physically unbelievable as a social outcast), sister Christina (Ginny Gardner), best friends Adam (Allen Evangelista) and Quinn (Sam Lerner) and unattainable crush Jessie (Sofia Black D’Elia) forming a likable team of heroes. As they mess around with the device, first cautiously but then with greater confidence and creativity, Israelite displays a knack for depicting teenage friendship and romance. For once in a found-footage thriller, these characters feel real. There’s an entertaining amount of comedy along with some romance, and the writers handle the balance with confidence.

It’s once Project Almanac moves into darker territory that it begins to lose its way. After watching David and his friends make light of time travel for most of the film, it’s not entirely plausible when one of them (no spoilers) goes down a murkier moral path, ‘jumping’ alone in order to correct his past mistakes and mucking up a great deal in the process. Even less satisfying is the ending, which might have been predicted by some but only serves to reinforce Project Almanac’s commitment to just scraping the surface of its topsy-turvy subject matter.

As much potential as its premise has, the film is content to play in shallow waters, never truly investing in time travel as anything other than a way for teens to better their own lives and ultimately learn that it’s a really (really) bad idea to screw around with time. Project Almanac doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. Some might hold that against it. Others, like me, will be entertained enough by its strong cast, relentless pace and infectious energy to just go with it.

Grade: B

If you want a movie to inspire you, go see “The Theory of Everything.” If you’re searching for one that gets under your skin and stays there, check out “Nightcrawler.” But if you’re desperate for a comedy fix, and “Dear White People” isn’t on offer, you could do worse than “Horrible Bosses 2.”

In this pumped-up sequel to the 2011 hit, Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) have sidestepped the problem of dealing with horrible bosses by becoming their own bosses and launching a product called the Shower Buddy. As the device becomes an overnight success, the trio finally seems poised to grasp fame and fortune – until they’re conned out of their business by slick investor Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz) and his sneering son (Chris Pine). Infuriated and facing financial run, the three devise a harebrained plot to kidnap the son and hold him for ransom. This being Nick, Kurt and Dale, absolutely nothing goes according to plan, and they end up in way over their heads.

So far, so familiar. Chief among the many complaints that could be lobbied at “Horrible Bosses 2” is that it never provides much justification for its own existence. The dynamic between the three leads remains essentially unchanged from last time around, and it takes some serious stretching on the writers’ parts to set up this sequel’s story. To much dismay, some of the same jokes are played out again with deservedly fewer laughs than they got the first time around.

Yet, once all the parts are successfully set into motion, there’s a certain amount of fun to be had with “Horrible Bosses 2.” Bateman, Sudeikis and Day share a fizzy, feel-good chemistry that carries the movie through its weakest plot points, and director Sean Anders (taking over from Seth Green) displays a visual elan that’s at once unexpected and refreshing.

The movie’s real secret weapon, though, is Pine, as the alternately crazed and charismatic Rex. Someone in Hollywood needs to pay attention and stop casting this guy as dashing, pretty-boy heroes – between this and “Stretch” (side note: go see “Stretch” right now), Pine has proven that he’s much better at playing deranged psychopaths.



As for the humor itself, “Horrible Bosses 2” is as scattershot as its predecessor if not more so. Some lines fall completely flat and others land right on target, but if you found the last film to be entertaining, “Horrible Bosses 2” is certainly good for a few big laughs (especially once Jennifer Aniston, again playing randy dentist Julia, shows up to steal the spotlight for a few scenes). Just be prepared to cringe in equal measure.

Most of “Horrible Bosses 2”’s momentum comes from its heightening of the ingredients that made the first film such a winning concoction. The raunch, the action, the absurd twists – all of it is kicked up a few notches, and the resulting off-the-charts energy works to the film’s benefit. Does that make “Horrible Bosses 2” a better film than its predecessor? Not at all, though there will be those who argue that. This sequel is messier, dumber and seldom delivers punchlines with as much potency.

Still, that “Horrible Bosses 2” isn’t a total train-wreck is a pleasant surprise. Yes, it’s vulgar, inane drivel; but it’s vulgar, inane drivel made by talented people who can spin narrative muck into undemanding entertainment blindfolded. Much of “Horrible Bosses 2,” unsteadily plotted though it is, coasts on the charms of its cast and polished direction. It’s just a pity that the writers never aimed to do more than just that.

Grade: B-

A lot has changed since the first “Horrible Bosses” hit theaters in 2011. Jason Bateman went back to resurrected cult comedy “Arrested Development” for a fourth season on Netflix and directed his first feature film, the terrific “Bad Words.” Meanwhile, Jason Sudeikis got married, had a son and appeared in “We’re the Millers,” one of his biggest movies to date. Charlie Day also had a son, returned to his popular sitcom “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and fought for the survival of the human race in sci-fi spectacle “Pacific Rim.”

So it’s fitting that in “Horrible Bosses 2,” the central trio, played by Bateman, Sudeikis and Day, has also experienced some pretty huge changes. After surviving their harebrained scheme to take out their respective horrible bosses, Nick (Bateman), Kurt (Sudeikis) and Dale (Day) have opted instead to become their own bosses. Banding together, the trio launched a business and hit it big with a product called the Shower Buddy. However, when a slick investor (Christoph Waltz) cons them out of their own business, Nick, Kurt and Dale decide to kidnap the investor’s adult son (Chris Pine) and hold him for ransom. Predictably, things get out of control pretty quickly.

“It was really fun for the three of us to get back together again,” said Day in a conference call with college journalists, “because we enjoy each other’s company and we had such a great time making the first one.”

Day admits, though, that “Horrible Bosses 2” may not be quite as much fun for their characters: “It’s a terrible thing for the three of these people to get back together again because they keep getting themselves into some serious shit,” he said with a laugh. The actor isn’t kidding. Even with all the craziness that was on display in the first film, this sequel ups the ante. It won’t, the actors all agreed, simply offer fans more of the same.

“You know, it would be pressure-packed if we were doing the same material. I don’t think that we can do that first film — I don’t think that we’d be able to repeat that performance in that film again,” Bateman said. “But this is all new material, and we haven’t seen it before. Basically, we get a nice, free shot at it.”

Bateman was also enthusiastic about the amount of screen-time that he, Sudeikis and Day share this time around. We have “every scene together,” he said. “Which is a crazy notion that I couldn’t have enjoyed more. But the first movie we spent the first thirty minutes in each of our own little movie with our own horrible boss and in this one it’s just right off the bat all three sitting next to each other on a couch.”

The actor also teased a bigger budget and the perks that come with this sequel. “We also got to do a little bit of green screen work [which is] more usually relegated to the big effects movies, so it was neat to be a part of that process,” Bateman said.

Day also described Pine’s character, who is with the main trio for much of the film, as a “fourth musketeer” of sorts.
“He brought a lot to it,” Day said.
“He brought a lot of hotness,” Sudeikis added.
“Someone had to do it,” Bateman followed.

The story isn’t the only thing different this time around. “That’s My Boy” director Sean Anders stepped in for previous director Seth Gordon, and “Horrible Bosses” scribes John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein were joined by Anders and his co-writer John Morris.

Sudeikis called the experience of working with Anders and Morris “great,” adding that they “are two of the best script writers in Hollywood right now. At least I think so. They did a great job with the re-writing of ‘We’re the Millers’ so it was like having two other writers on set with us,” he said.

Visually, Anders did his own thing on the sequel. “There’s a whole chunk in the middle where it almost looks like a gosh darn Steven Soderbergh film that he had in his head,” Sudeikis said. “And then even the stuff of us starting the business, all the visual elements to it that feel like a Fincher movie, it’s like something right out of ‘Fight Club.’”

Adding an acclaimed actor like Waltz and bringing back Kevin Spacey improved the atmosphere on set, Bateman said.  “It was pretty cool. When you can, this is a big kind of silly commercial studio comedy, and when you can class it up with some Oscar winners, it’s a really nice balanced cocktail,” he said.

“Everyone loves a properly mixed cocktail... Don’t want anything too straight. It was really cool to work with all those people. Everyone really seemed to understand what we were making and that made for a good time,” Bateman said.
Co-stars like Keegan-Michael Key and Jonathan Banks also added to the stars’ anticipation for the sequel.

“It’s really flattering to make the first one and have it exist and then when you’re making the second one to have people say, ‘Oh yeah, I want to be a part of that,’” Sudeikis said. Sudeikis added that, “I’ve known Keegan forever, there’s a lot of Second City people in this movie and you love the fact that they want to come on board.”

Though this sequel and its predecessor have both found the stars grappling with truly despicable overseers, the actors couldn’t think of any horrible bosses they’ve personally experienced. “I started acting so young that I never really had a traditional boss but I’ve certainly worked for some prickly directors, movie stars, producers [and] studio heads. I have no horror stories that I can think of,” Bateman said. “But my knees are bent - I’m waiting for a real son-of-a-bitch to come my way. I’m prepped.”

The actor added that, to one little girl in particular, he himself may be a horrible boss. “I tossed my two-year-old into the car pretty quickly this morning. I think she’d probably tell you that I’m a real asshole, but we were late for school goddamnit,” he joked.

Will audiences respond to “Horrible Bosses 2” with as much enthusiasm as they did the first film? The jury’s still out, but Bateman certainly thinks so.  “I’m pretty good about being objective, and I really enjoyed the first one as a viewer,” the actor said. “I watched this one with that same perspective and I genuinely liked it even more than the first. So I’m actually feeling kind of bullish. If people see it the way I see it, they’re going to be very happy with this one. I’m feeling good.”

Added Day: “I expect people to be skeptical, and I hope that they’re pleasantly surprised.”