Night School or Nightmare?

Title – Night School
Certificate – 12A
Director – Malcolm D. Lee
Writers – Kevin Hart, Harry Ratchford, Joey Wells, Matthew Kellard, Nicholas Stoller, John Hamburg
Cast – Tiffany Haddish (Carrie), Kevin Hart (Teddy Walker), Mary Lynn Rajskub (Theresa)
Plot – A group of troublemakers are forced to attend night school in hope that they’ll pass the GED exam to finish high school.

Billy Madison has had a remake with current funnyman Kevin Hart in the lead role. Gone are Adam Sandler’s garish grunts, replaced with Hart’s razor sharp wit.

It’s a simple story, man inherits business only if he can pass his school exams, man goes back to school, man abuses someone on way to first day at school, man finds out that it was his school teacher. It’s all there. From the crackpot students surrounding the lead, to the back and forth between Hart and Haddish.

I felt so much like it shouldn’t work…like it shouldn’t be funny at all…but it did.

Granted, most of the actual laughs and comedy come from the other students in the class. Rob Riggle is crazy, Romany Malco is hilarious as a conspiracy nut, and Mary Lynn Rajskub is nuttier than a fruitcake, but with a heart.

As the comedy continued to surprise me (most of the good stuff is not in the trailer), I found I was really enjoying the film.

Its funny and engaging without ever pushing itself any further than it needed to.

3/5