Kevin Hart stars as Joe Nixon, a 40-year-old marketing executive in New York. The running joke about him is that he's too old to get youth culture. In real-life, Hart is in his mid-40's, getting close to 50. He's part of Generation X, which would be more appropriate for his character's perspective here. Yet, his character is meant to be a Millennial, an older Millennial, which is meant to make him still removed from youth culture. This would make sense, if he were marketing a product for Generation Alpha, that of people under the age of 16, or born after 2010. However, Joe is marketing a liquor brand, which means he's targeting people who are age 21 and over. Yet, the brand of liquor doesn't seem to be cheap, so he doesn't seem to be going after teens or even college students, necessarily. The brand seems like it's for people who can afford expensive liquor, people who have good jobs, people probably in their mid to late 20's, or even older. Joe being 40 would not make him that disconnected from that demographic. Nevertheless, the film wants us to think Joe is this old guy who's out-of-touch, which might be true of Hart in real-life, but it doesn't make that much sense for the character of Joe.
In order to connect and understand youth culture more, Joe decides to go on a trip to Miami with a group of guys on a bachelor party weekend. He's essentially doing market research and these guys are his focus group. However, the trick of this film is that Joe doesn't disclose this. He keeps his job and his marketing goal a secret from the guys. He basically lies to them, which doesn't make too much sense. First off, it's not clear why he wouldn't simply hire an actual focus group, or why he wouldn't just go to people in his family or the family of his friends or co-workers. Joe acts as if he's never encountered guys in their 20's or 30's. He's accidentally added to a group-chat involving guys going on a bachelor party weekend in Florida and he acts like he has to join this group because there's no one else he can find in New York City. It's a ridiculous premise and feels so contrived.
Marcello Hernández (Saturday Night Live) co-stars as Nick, the best man who is organizing the bachelor party weekend. He's the one who accidentally adds Joe to the group-chat. Hernández is in his late 20's. He's not that much younger than the character of Joe, but Nick acts like a frat boy. He just wants to have fun and not settle down. In fact, he makes fun of the groom for getting a ball-and-chain. Nick sees this trip as a last chance to be a swinging bachelor with his friend by his side.
Mason Gooding (Heart Eyes and Scream) also co-stars as Mason Moses, the aforementioned groom. He's basically the straight guy who is pulled along into one crazy situation after another. His only trait is that he's the most mature of all of them. This is a source of conflict for him and Nick, given that Nick is probably the least mature. The feature could've made more bones out of this conflict. It's virtually a non-issue until all of a sudden, it's an issue at the end of the second act.
Ben Marshall (Saturday Night Live) plays Hunter, and Kam Patterson (Saturday Night Live) plays "Freshman." Both are friends of Mason and Nick. They're also groomsmen in Mason's upcoming wedding. Both get a quirk. Marshall and Patterson are from SNL too, and both are doing their shticks from that show. They're great comedic actors. The feature doesn't utilize them as much as they could've been. They're basically window-dressing here. Patterson gets an interesting gag in that he's revealed that Freshman is a polyglot. Marshall's shtick is being a tall, awkward, and dorky guy. He's a fine presence, but he could easily be removed from this narrative and not be missed.
As usual, Hart sucks up the oxygen in every scene, and he's in almost every scene. The supporting cast cease to matter, as Hart rolls over them. He's specifically given a specific, comedy bit to do, which is way over-the-top and intentionally racist. It's a comedy bit he does twice. The first time, the comedy bit is rather confusing, but the second time, it's pretty hilarious. The comedy bit is Hart doing an impression of Al Pacino in Scarface (1983). The only complaint is that it isn't utilized more. Michael Mando (Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Better Call Saul) plays Jaze, a drug dealer who could've been more of an antagonist for Hart's Pacino persona, but that's not really developed as much as it could have been.
Of the funny bits, the ones I enjoyed included Joe being accused of human trafficking. Another involved a limousine fight, and there was a bit regarding Andy Garcia (Ocean's Eleven and The Godfather Part III) that I thought was funny. Those few bits work, but they're too few and far between in the nearly two-hour run-time.
Rated R for language, drug use, graphic nudity.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 45 mins.
Available on Netflix.
