Netflix Movie Review: 72 Hours

Posted on July 25, 2026 by jjcwn • Posted in Comedy • Tagged 72 Hours, Kevin Hart • Leave a comment

The world has known for years that Kevin Hart is one of the best stand-up comedians of all time. More impressive is the years of dues he has paid to rise to the top of the entertainment industry, now as a producer and the head of his own production company, “Hartbeat,” and with a net worth of 400 million dollars.

Unfortunately, his habit of making very bad comedy movies on Netflix continues, with the latest release, “72 Hours”. While watching this waste of two hours, I was amazed that Hart or any of the other cast members could have read this screenplay and then agreed to make the movie. Just about all of the attempts at comedy failed throughout this film, including – once again – the telltale sign of a bad movie – the projectile vomiting over other people scene. Someone, somewhere in the entertainment industry, still thinks that a huge amount of vomiting is funny in a movie. It’s even funnier when someone profusely vomits all over other people. Kevin Hart has had too many of these scenes in his movies; this one is one of the all-time worst.

Kevin Hart stars as Joe Nixon, who is an up and coming advertizing executive who has had a few bad campaigns lately. The plan is to connect Joe with some young men in their 20s so he can learn what they like. These four young men are played by three cast members of Saturday Night Live, Ben Marshall (Hunter), Kam Patterson (Freshman), Marcello Hernández (Nick), and their friend who is about to be married, Mason, played by Mason Gooding. None of the attempted humorous scenes and personal connections with Joe Nixon and these younger men worked. The humor is crude, in some cases disgusting, with nothing humorous. Most amazing about this arguably the worst Kevin Hart Netflix comedy movie is that it took four screenwriters to write it: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, Kevin Burrows, and Matt Mider. Joe Nixon is also having problems with his girlfriend, Jennifer, played by Teyana Taylor – which is a sub-story that seemed more about making the movie last closer to two hours.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are an accurate, very low 14% – with my rating 1% and a must-miss-this-bad-movie recommendation.

Movie Review: The Invite

Posted on July 20, 2026 by jjcwn • Posted in Comedy, Drama • Tagged Edward Norton, Olivia Wilde, Penelope Cruz, Seth Rogan, The Invite • Leave a comment

When it comes to screenwriting, the number one mantra has always been, “This is a movie, not a novel, show don’t tell”. The new movie “The Invite”, directed by Olivia Wilde, written by Cesc Gay, Will McCormack, Rashida Jones, and starring only four actors, Seth Rogen(Joe), Olivia Wilde(Angela), Penélope Cruz (Piña), and Edward Norton (Hawk) – the entire movie takes place in one small New York City apartment – violating all aspects of the show don’t tell rule. Movies like this one, which is a well-done dialogue-only movie, prove that the show don’t tell rule should never be applied to all types of films.

The story starts with a married couple, Joe and Angela, who have who face many extreme marital problems, beginning with nonstop arguing and disagreements that continue through the first 20% of this film. The arguments start with Angela inviting two guests over for dinner, who are neighbors in their apartment building. Angela insists that she told Joe days ago that this dinner would be happening, and Joe does not remember this conversation – starting the “you never listen to me” standard marriage argument. Almost all of Joe and Angela’s arguments are petty and ridiculous, which adds a strong element of comedy to this mostly comedic movie. By the time the guests arrive, Angela and Joe are still in extreme argument mode, which, for the rest of this story, which is almost 100% dialogue, mutates into arguments with their guests, finding out who they are, what they do for a living, and why Pina and Hawk really came over for dinner this evening.

This movie would never have worked if the dialogue and acting throughout this 1 hour and 47 minute unusual film were not so well done. The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are too high at 97% for a film like this, with my rating a solid 85% and a recommendation.

Amazon Prime Series: Elle

Posted on July 4, 2026 by jjcwn • Posted in Comedy, Drama, Space Travel • Tagged Elle, Legally Blonde, Reece Witherspoon • Leave a comment

The movie “Legally Blonde” (2001) is one of the most popular and iconic movies of all time. Frequently on cable TV, during the entire 25 years since it was released. The original movie starred Reece Witherspoon as Elle Woods, a young woman who was rejected by her cruel and stupid boyfriend and tries to get into Harvard Law School to win him back.

One of the best parts of this very good movie is Elle’s resilience, which at first enabled her to start out badly at Harvard and then fight back to become a top student. Elle was so different than all the other Law students at Harvard, which caused a great deal of resentment from several egomaniac law students, angry that someone like this got into their school. This was yet another challenging problem that Elle had to overcome. Despite all the problems, Elle keeps her extremely positive personality and continues to wear pink, traveling almost everywhere with her tiny Chihuahua, Bruiser, and refusing to try to be like everybody else – just to fit in.

The most surprising thing about the new Amazon Prime Series “Elle” is that it took 25 years to come up with a great idea like this – following Elle’s life in the mid-1990’s while she was still in high school. The first task the producers of this eight-episode series did was casting Lexi Minetree as Elle Woods, as she is outstanding in this role, with her look, personality, and voice matching Reece Witherspoon’s perfectly.

The story has some similarities to the movie, where Elle’s father is forced to move from Los Angeles to Seattle due to a botched nose job within his plastic surgery business, forcing Elle to adapt to a Seattle High School where she is very different from every other student. Like the original movie, Elle has to overcome the hostility of many of the students, especially Kimberly (Chandler Kinney), who is nasty and cruel to Elle at every opportunity. Too much of this nastiness is overkill, especially towards someone as cute as Elle. Once arriving at this Seattle school, several different sub-stories allow Elle to eventually gain several friends, while never losing her own identity – including wearing pink outfits while everybody else wears dark, depressing grunge clothing. Over time, Elle forms new friendships with Liz (Gabrielle Policano), a gay young woman, along with Shannon (Danielle Chand), Miles (Jacob Moskovitz), and Dustin (Zac Looker). These friendships grow stronger as the series progresses, but not without many disagreements and conflicts along the way.

The main sub-story in this series involves the High School Principal(Matt Oberg) and the Dean of the school (James Van Der Beek) stealing money from the high school. Van Der Beek was in his final role during the latter stages of dying from colon cancer, and within the four episodes Van Der Beek appeared, it was difficult to see his extreme weight loss, while admiring his courage to continue working when he had such a short time to live.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this solid series is way too low at 53%, while my rating is 80%, and I strongly recommend this series.