BEFORE: OK, maybe too many action/comedy movies in a row, I need to shake things up a little. Kevin Hart carries over from "Ride Along 2".
I know, this is a documentary, about his comedy tour with Chris Rock. And the Doc Block isn't scheduled to start until mid-June, so why put this one here? Honestly, I tried to fit this one into the schedule for the upcoming documentary chain, but it doesn't fit. Well, that's not really true, it DOES fit, but only in one specific place, between a documentary about Chris Farley and another one about Albert Brooks - as you might expect, because Chris Rock was on SNL with Farley and a lot of comedians appear to talk about Mr. Brooks. BUT that space is occupied by a documentary about John Belushi, and I can't fit them both in the chain there, that won't work. That Belushi doc has been on my list for probably three years or more, so it takes precedence, I don't want to put it off yet another time. So I'm sneaking the doc that WON'T fit into the chain here, between two movies with Kevin Hart in them.
I could probably tear the doc chain apart and put it back together another way, and fit this one in there, but that's a lot of work, I'd rather not mess with it at this point. I could skip it, but then I don't like the way my slots line up, I'm not crazy about which film lands on spot #4,750, so this one goes here and solves that little problem, too.
THE PLOT: Follows two comedy icons behind the scenes throughout a tour of New York City area venues as they tell firsthand accounts of their early lives, their struggles, their triumphs and their brotherhood.
AFTER: This is another weird film, because it's technically a documentary, but who the heck needs a doc about a comedy tour? Why not just air the footage FROM the event itself? The team-up was called the "Rock-Hart tour", and that's kind of cool because it sounds a lot like "Rock Hard". But Kevin Hart's got like five comedy specials (at least) on Netflix, why not just one more? Because what's glaringly missing here is the comedy concert footage from Madison Square Garden - we see the two famous comics doing mic checks at MSG, we see them backstage at MSG, we see the intros to their routines, but NOT the routines themselves. There's even footage of the post-show, where Hart gives Rock an actual GOAT as a present, as a way of telling him that he's the "Greatest Of All Time" in comedy, but umm, and look, I guess that means the mini-tour went well, but jeez, I'd really like to see that for myself.
Last year I endured the similar doc "Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage?" which showed the acclaimed Broadway actress and singer touring across the country, preparing for her big concert at the same venue, Madison Square Garden (which is neither square nor a garden, but that's beside the point). And then once she got there, OF COURSE there was footage of her singing songs for the crowd at MSG, including OF COURSE "Let It Go", which nobody needed to hear again. But that's called the PAY-OFF, you don't detail the road to something in a doc and then NOT show us that thing, because then what the hell did we waste the last 80 or 90 minutes building up to?
Look, I can easily see myself complaining if there was TOO much footage of Kevin Hart and Chris Rock's routines on the MSG stage - then I probably wouldn't consider this a documentary at all, then it would just be a concert film, or a regular-like Netflix comedy special. So clearly they were going for something that wasn't ALL comedy routines, let's shake it up a bit and ask other comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Wanda Sykes how they know our two headliners, when did they first see them perform, what makes them special, etc. That's all fine, but then to not air ANY of the concert footage, that's a damn shame. It's literally why we showed up to watch this film, to see the funny people being funny. So I'm not saying there needed to be a lot, but I think there at least needed to be a little.
Then the other problem is that their backstories are so matter-of-fact. I went to this club, I was hired for this TV show, I was in this movie with Ice-T, that's all just a bit dry - and limited by which pieces of movie footage they were able to license. (My biggest challenge with linking these docs is that the IMDB listings for archive footage are usually incomplete, so I usually end up submitting a bunch of additions to the IMDB editors, and sometimes they believe me, and sometimes they don't, but I do what I can to make the listings more completer.). Do we need to know about Kevin Hart's sit-com "Big House" that got cancelled before it could air? No, we do not, because who cares? Everybody has failures on their resume, because not everything can be a hit, it's just that simple.
OK, maybe both comedians had specials on Netflix that featured the same material that they performed in these NYC venues. I guess I could see why Netflix wouldn't want to compete with itself, like you might not tune it two watch the latest Kevin Hart comedy special if you'd heard half of his routines before, like in some weird documentary about doing stand-up on tour in four locations in the same part of the country.
Oh, but Dave Chappelle also joins the tour for the big MSG event, and both Hart and Rock weren't sure if he was going to show up until just days before the show. They admit, Dave's gonna do whatever Dave wants to do, and also the reverse of that, he's not going to do what he doesn't want to do. Friends like Jay-Z show up backstage, and also the new mayor of NYC, Eric Adams, who often sounds like he's doing stand-up himself during his press conferences, except they're not funny and often don't make any sense.
The big draw to me is learning more about Chris Rock's time on SNL, how he couldn't get many of his written sketches approved for broadcast, so he's probably got a grudge against the head writer at the time (Conan O'Brien?) and also why he left the show after only a couple of seasons to appear on the rival sketch show "In Living Color" instead. This probably would have been a terrible career move if he hadn't hit it big in movies shortly after that, with appearances in "Lethal Weapon 4", "Dogma" and the animated films "Osmosis Jones", "Doctor Dolittle" and the "Madagascar" series. Everything kind of turned out fine, more or less.
Kevin Hart, same deal, once his "Big House" sitcom got cancelled, that only made him more determined to hit it big, even if he had to make a couple of stinker movies like "Soul Plane" and "Scary Movie 3" before long he stood t in small roles in "The 40-Year Old Virgin" and "Fool's Gold", "Meet Dave" and "Drillbit Taylor". There you go, just keep working and hustling until you've got a starring role in "Think Like a Man" or "Ride Along". So I guess it took both of these comedians/actors years or hard work before they could be considered "overnight successes". There's a lesson in there somewhere about hard work and paying your dues, I suppose.
I wish both men great success, of course, but I just wish the documentary made about their NYC shows could have been a little more engaging, somehow.
Also starring Chris Rock (last seen in "Rustin"), Bill Burr (last seen in "Dog"), Cedric the Entertainer (last seen in "Street Kings"), Dave Chappelle (last seen in "Can We Take a Joke?"), Tiffany Haddish (last seen in "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent"), D.L. Hughley, Jay-Z (last seen in "De Palma"), Tony Rock, Jerry Seinfeld (last seen in "The Super Bob Einstein Movie"), Wanda Sykes (last seen in "Monster-in-Law"), Eric Adams, Tina Farris, Robert Hart, Caroline Hirsch, Will "Spank" Horton (last seen in "Ride Along"), Keith Robinson,
with archive footage of Dave Attell (last seen in "Mr. Warmth - The Don Rickles Project"), Roseanne Barr (last seen in "Frank Sinatra: One More for the Road"), Jim Carrey (last seen in "Val"), Dana Carvey (last seen in "Jack and Jill"), Louis C.K. (last seen in "I Love You, Daddy"), Chris Farley, Flea (last seen in "Babylon"), David Alan Grier (last seen in "Coffee & Kareem"), Arsenio Hall (last seen in "That's My Boy"), Phil Hartman (last seen in "Nothing Compares"), Jan Hooks (ditto), Steve Harvey (last seen in "Think Like a Man"), Kate Hudson (last seen in "Alex & Emma"), Ice-T, Reggie Jackson (last seen in "Say Hey, Willie Mays!"), Victoria Jackson, Sam Kinison (last seen in "George Carlin's American Dream"), Jon Lovitz (last seen in "I Could Never Be Your Woman"), Bernie Mac, Howie Mandel (also last seen in "Can We Take a Joke?"), Matthew McConaughey (last heard in "Sing 2"), Mike Myers (last seen in "Amsterdam"), Dennis Miller (last seen in "Jagged"), Eddie Murphy (last seen in "You People"), Patrice O'Neal, Colin Quinn (also last seen in "That's My Boy"), Joan Rivers (last seen in "Listening to Kenny G"), Adam Sandler (last seen in "Jack and Jill"), David Spade (last seen in "The Wrong Missy"), Robert Townsend, Damon Wayans (last seen in "Bulletproof"), Keenan Ivory Wayans,
RATING: 4 out of 10 early appearances at the Comedy Cellar
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