UK Premiere Kevin Hart

by Marianne Lehmann and Lisa Pighetti

With brilliantly witty glowing eyes and a smart spark he opens up the interview queue. He hears the first question and goes off like a pistol. Kevin Hart, you are so smart…he indeed is. He gives the most appropriate answers…yes, he is a dedicated father to his kids who are his world. No, he does not care much about being famous but he loves what he does. He says being famous is a secondary effect, a by-product of the chemical reaction between him and the audience who fall in love with him  in rows.  Yes, stand up comedy is a way to express himself, a form of therapy, an interface to interact with the audience, a way of compressing feelings and burn them in laughter. And yes, he loves  London and will be back here again and again, working at his British accent already in order to be able to order „tee-ah“ in the real British gentleman’s way.

Kevin Hart does take people in with his charm and his wit. He really knows how to connect with the audience and is very likeable. And since he admits freely to have learned from the greatest stand up comedians, the Kings of Comedy,  nobody cares that some of his jokes remind of Eddie Murphy’s or Bill Cosby’s jokes. Nobody seems to feel the need to search for the needle in the haystack or for linguistic correction and political correctness. Questions about Britain’s society and its division  that might be detected in the composition of the audience are forgotten for once during that night…because, not only does Kevin Hart get his therapy by doing stand up comedy, but he also is a remedy, an anti-depressant, and an anti-fatigue. He is genuinely funny and…just a very nice and amiable person.

Marianne Lehmann

The film:

Kevin Hart presented his hilariously manic stand-up comedy recorded on his 2012 world tour along Europe, which took him to 10 countries and 80 cities, earning more than $32 million. In addition to serving up the sensational pyro-fuelled show. The opening sequence plays to let people know that, despite his only-human failings, Kevin Hart is some kind of spectacularly inventive and world-famous entertainer. After this self-indulgent intro you can enjoy approximately an hour of freewheeling funny stuff  speaking self-deprecatingly of his recent divorce, of topics ranging from the black woman’s body language and animations during arguments, of his employing a mishmash of bodyguards, to the misguided use of ‘bro code talk’ gone bad, and ending on an escapade while on a horse-back riding trip with his son and friends. Hart shows his emotional side at the end of the movie at the live taping in Madison Square Garden during thanking his followers for their loyalty and support over the years.

Lisa Pighetti