“Night School” is a film about someone who covers up their less than favorable past in order to put the focus on their more successful present, before being exposed to the world. Funny then that, while the film is being marketed as the follow up from Malcolm D. Lee, the director of “Girl’s Trip,” a very well-made comedy, the director’s previous films, duds like “Undercover Brother,” “Soul Men” and “Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins” are much closer to “Night School” than it is to “Girl’s Trip.”
The film follows a high school dropout played by Kevin Hart (“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” “Ride Along”) coming back to get his GED to get a fancy new job to impress his out of his league fiancé. Despite a robust ensemble cast consisting of Rob Riggle (“Talladega Nights,” “The Hangover”), Keith David (“The Thing,” “The Nice Guys”), Ben Schwartz (“Parks and Recreation,” “House of Lies”), and Taran Killam (“Killing Gunther,” “Brother Nature”), no one manages to stand out even remotely. Tiffany Haddish (“Keanu,” “The Carmichael Show”) is the most memorable, but that’s mainly due to her getting the most screen time.
Some of the film’s concepts even manage to be pretty genius, in theory. Killam plays a former nerd who’s become antagonistic as a principal in his quest to educate, and most of that class of GED seekers seem amusing, but most are reduced to idiotic stereotypes out of the gate.
However, despite being stereotypes, the film spends an extended introductory scene trying to give them all backstories and developments. Nothing matters as the film progresses though, as none of the grow by the end. One of the characters, a young teen named Mila, is given more backstory in a more understandable way on the film’s Wikipedia page.
This lack of any stand out characters is surprising given the film’s six credited writers. Even with that many cook’s in the kitchen, “Night School” ends up being indistinguishable from other comedian led comedies that release over the years. This doesn’t mean the film is bad. It just means its bland.
Nothing in the film stands out. The plot is routine, the characters are standard, even the arcs of the background characters are bland. Most of this could be forgiven if the film was funny. But virtually none of the jokes land, getting only a chuckle here and there and nothing more.
Most bizarrely though, there are minor elements within the film that speak to the best of intentions. Hart’s character has learning disabilities, including dyslexia, dyscalculia and a processing disorder, and while he often is, they’re never the butt of the joke. His classmates and teacher then help him to learn in the way that best suits him.
Not only that, but the film’s last twenty minutes are a large jump in quality, moving away from trying to be a flat comedy and towards the territory of a cheesy underdog story. These last twenty minutes are easily better than the 100 minutes that come prior. This and the fact that Haddish’s character is a lesbian, feel like sweet and well-intentioned additions that end up doing very little to improve the actual quality of the film.
“Night School” is boring and bland, but nothing about it is objectively bad. It’s merely routine and unfunny. A few decent minor details and a sweet third act help a bit, but in the end Hart and Haddish are left stranded in a film that’s as cookie cutter and uninteresting as they come. It’s not a flunk. It’s just painfully average. 2/5
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