Me Time, 2022.
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 me time in years by joining his hard-partying old friend on a wild birthday adventure.
Within the first five minutes of Along Came Polly director John Hamburg’s latest comedy Me Time, there is a hang-gliding incident gone wrong, Kevin Hart trips over a tortoise poop and falls flat on his back in the kitchen, and Mark Wahlberg is taken aback by the size of donkey genitalia and can’t help himself from texting over visual proof while the former is making breakfast for his family.
If that sounds hilarious to you, then head right over to Netflix. Personally, it’s hard to stomach that anyone can remotely think (John Hamburg also wrote the film) that this passes for comedy. The phrase lowest common denominator often gets thrown around a lot to describe similar lowbrow affairs (which is not to say that juvenile humor is a bad thing, as, like anything else, it can be done correctly), but the laziness here puts most of those movies to shame.
Kevin Hart is Sonny Fisher, a family man married to Regina Hall’s architect Maya (who somehow has almost nothing funny to do here, which should be a crime considering it’s Regina Hall), with two children in elementary school (Che Tafari’s Dash and Amentii Sledge’s Ava). While Maya is the breadwinner, Sonny is more than a stay-at-home dad; he is the PTA president and is locked into every aspect of the school, including directing the upcoming talent show. A former failed musician, Sonny 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 parent who is so fixated on what he wants and deems perfect that it’s no surprise he’s a buzz kill. He is also so devoted to his family duties and school job that his coworkers mock him into believing that if he doesn’t focus on himself once in a while, eventually, he will end up like the lonely and divorced school crossing guard Lenore (Diane Delano).
However, Sonny wasn’t always this boring. Before drifting apart from his daredevil, YOLO best friend Huck (Mark Wahlberg), by association, he got into all sorts of reckless shenanigans. Starting a family caused Sonny to grow up and avoid this potential bad influence. Meanwhile, Maya wants to take the kids on vacation to visit their grandparents, with everyone encouraging Sonny to stay home and enjoy that time, as he deserves a break. Huck’s birthday is also coming up (traditionally celebrated by doing something extremely chaotic), meaning that this could be a good opportunity for the two to reconnect and see each other for the first time in roughly a decade.
The best thing to say about Me Time is that while it’s obvious where all of these characters will end up and what they will learn in the process, it is unpredictably wild from moment to moment. Whenever the movie feels like it’s going to set itself down in one location to focus on laughs, something else suddenly comes crashing into the picture, with the characters barreling somewhere else. Unfortunately, much of the same lazy humor permeates most of these admittedly funny situations.
As Sonny and Huck hop on a tour bus partying with the latter’s younger, rowdy friends, they contend with debts, survival (there is a sequence involving a lion that is outrageous), and revenge (Sonny Suspects that his wife’s wealthiest client is putting the moves on her, especially since he shows up at the vacation spot). These elements typically lead to our dimwit protagonists finding themselves in trouble, including a scare involving a tortoise that is easily the funniest thing here (it’s referenced on the poster for a reason). But between all that, there are scenes of Kevin Hart taking a shit in his wife’s boss’s bed (and that’s just one example of how astonishingly lazy the jokes here can be).
There’s also not much to cling onto regarding the messaging here, which is as simple as being and allowing others to be themselves while fighting a healthy balance of hijinks and duties in adulthood. Further hurting this is that Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg don’t always play off each other well; each has the occasional amusing bit individually or chemistry with others, but nothing about Me Time encourages one to want them to reteam for a future comedy with a better script.
Mark Wahlberg almost feels miscast; he’s appropriate for the adrenaline junkie and hard-partying aspect of the character but doesn’t necessarily make his jokes land. As for Kevin Hart, he’s just doing his usual routine. The antics they find themselves in our sometimes entertaining, but for the most part, there are better ways to spend your me time.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
