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About Last Night DVD review

Bernie (Kevin Hart) and Danny (Michael Ealy) are best mates and have been for some time. They work together and then go out drinking and chasing ladies together. One night they meet Joan (Regina Hall) and Debbie (Joy Bryant) in a bar and sparks fly. Bernie and Joan get red hot fast and then break up, so it’s left to Danny and Debbie to keep the friends together. But how can they manage that when their own relationship isn’t developing how either of them wants it to? Testing times come for them both when real life comes calling with news that can either make or break them.

Kevin Hart is a man on a mission, that mission is to break through into the A-list of Hollywood. So far he isn’t doing a bad job, he clearly wants to do more than just comedy as well. As shown in small doses of About Last Night, where he might be the comedic sidekick of the storyline but he also has a few heartfelt moments that don’t require him to mug off all the time. Yet the best parts of the movie are the jokes and the slanging matches that Hart and/or Hall are involved in. They keep it ticking along.

What brings the film down to a dull roar is the moody emotional love story between Danny and Debbie. It’s hardly engaging or even remotely interesting. They both struggle with every day occurrences that most people would be able to work past. But for the sake of the film they have to argue to make it more interesting. We felt bored with the entire proceedings of the main two characters; it’s all just full of love story clichés and endless drivel. Thankfully Hart and Hall pop in every so often to lighten the mood of the story and pick up the film. But it’s still not enough to save the entire movie.

Ealy and Bryant might be the focus couple in this film, but we found them both to be a bit wet in their respective roles. Bryant doesn’t offer enough for us to care about her life and Ealy is too obnoxious for us to relate to how he is playing his character. Whilst Hart and Hall are clearly in there for the comedic side of things only, they both are the best things in the movie. Devastatingly full of attitude, they both know how to dial it up to 11 when fighting with each other. The first third of the film, when both couples are enjoying the honeymoon period of their relationships, is completely sound-tracked by these hideous R&B slow jams. It’s like an advert for a bad music compilation.

About Last Night might want to have something profound to say about how real life does get in the way of true romance, but it never conveys it enough. We sat there and thought that any of these problems are easily solved with a proper sit-down chat with your partner. Thankfully the comedy side of the film helps maintain this movie from being too drab an affair to enjoy.

Mark Searby
Mark Searby
Film critic for BBC Local Radio. Author of Al Pacino: The Movies Behind The Man. Addict of The Wire. Long-suffering supporter of NFFC.
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