Die Hart the Movie

Stand-up and comic actor Kevin Hart plays an exaggerated version of himself in this feature-length reworking of a 2020 TV series, in which he strives to pivot his career towards action-movie roles. To prepare for the physical demands of the films, he enrols in a boot camp run by a grizzled stuntman (John Travolta) with unorthodox and extreme methods. Hart's innate likeability and willingness to send himself up help proceedings along, even when Hollywood in-jokes and sideswipes at the absurdities of the action genre intermittently fail to hit the spot. Travolta is perhaps a little too hammy and one-dimensional to match the comic precision of his co-star, although Jean Reno provides a few strong laughs as a pompous European director. Ultimately, however, the movie lacks the savagery and bite of the shorter, more focused episodes of the small-screen series that spawned it.