Have you ever felt as if you’d had déjà vu? The feeling of seeing the exact same thing, over and over again? I’ve had it for the past few years as, what feels like, the same film is being churned out over and over again.
Everyone knows the tale-the goofy, witty underachiever reluctantly teaming up with the strong, calculated yet complex overachiever, only for them to be the best of friends by the time the credits roll. It’s overdone and becoming extremely repetitive, and this film is one of the laziest examples of this boring trope to date.
On one hand, I hate and detest the lack of originality and personality, yet on the other hand, I’m impressed by how little this film cares, and secretly, I found myself enjoying a few moments throughout. Emphasis on a few.
For a comedy film, this film is low on laughs. Kevin Hart (Teddy) appears to be playing the same character repeatedly as not only is his plot almost mirrored from other films, but even his jokes are the same. Unfortunately, they weren’t that funny when they were first told. Despite this, he is the best quality of this film and does deliver some lines that made one corner of my mouth almost smile.
The same cannot be said for Woody Harrelson (The man from Toronto). His clear desire to be anywhere else pronto isn’t even hidden and makes me wonder what hold they had over him that forced him to give this wooden, slightly embarrassing performance.
To add further insult to injury, there is barely any action within this action movie. In a film with the potential for some fun, daft fight scenes, I can barely remember seeing three in the nearly two hours this film is on. Even then, I wasn’t engaged. The two fight scenes are quickly edited and a bit incomprehensible. They try to focus on humour rather than progressing the fight in a meaningful manner.
The final fight, however, does the opposite and is actually fun. It is filmed like a one-take. Despite shoddy editing making it clear it is not. It has consistently fun beats and has a moderately satisfying conclusion. Despite this scene being a saving grace of this disaster, this film feels as if the directors cut this scene in a desperate attempt to make the film deliver. On one hand this works, but on the other hand I feel as if I have whiplash.
This movie does nothing new or attempts to be unique in any way. Though it has about two scenes I would call passable, I cannot find myself recommending this film. In fact, I wouldn’t even call it a film. It’s an excuse to join two well-known actors together, copy an overdone movie theme and make lots of money. Given how Netflix is doing at the moment, I can’t even guarantee it has done the latter of these. The Man from Sheffield says No.
1/5
Image Credits – The MovieDB