About Last Night, a ro mantic comedy named for a phrase often uttered after a sexual rendezvous seemed like the perfect compromise of a sappy love story and crude humor to open on Val entine’s Day.
Director Steve Pink leaned on rising star Kevin Hart to draw in a crowd, hoping the comedian’s signature im provisation would stand out from the subpar acting of the B-list cast. Sadly, the audi ence came up severely disap pointed. TV promos aired the best knee-slapping moments with the other one-liners only producing a small chuckle.
The trailer showed an awe some comedy about a not-so-one-night stand resulting in the formation of two couples. In the opening scene, wise cracking Bernie (Hart) and loudmouthed Joan (Regina Hall) recount the sexual en counter to wingman Danny (Michael Ealy) and best friend Debbie (Joy Bryant) before meeting up for a dou ble date.
It’s common for several romantic comedies to have similar plotlines causing the audience to experience déjà vu. About Last Night goes a bit further—it is a remake of the 1986 film About Last Night. The majority of the script was paraphrased from the origi nal screenplay.
The original all white cast was made up of James Be lushi as Bernie, Rob Lowe as Danny, Demi Moore as Deb bie and Elizabeth Perkins as Joan. The lack of diversity in both casts makes the only difference in films being that the older version was set in Chicago and the recent in Los Angeles. But the remakes do not stop there. The 1986 film was based on the 1974 play Sexual Perversity in Chicago. Much like the corny pick-up lines used by the leading men, originality was in short sup ply.
In the true fashion of a hookup, the film began up beat and quick-witted, but soon the thrill was spoiled and the clock revealed the happiness of leading couple Danny and Debbie lasted a grand 45 minutes of the 107 minute film.
With what l it t le was changed from the original script, some of the writ ing was dated and what was changed lacked dimension for the actors to use in perform ing. The comic relationship of supporting couple Bernie and Joan was the highlight of the movie, but with limited screen time the audience had to slog through the boring and drawn out relationship of two actors who did not have experience being in title roles.
Despite the appearance of Happy Gilmore star Christo pher McDonald and Brook lyn Nine-Nine’s Joe Lo Trug lio, the talents of the support ing cast could not save the drawn out film or keep me from wondering when my relationship with this film would end. As expected, the ending was sappy and heart warming to stay true to the RomCom genre.
With the recent film suc cess of Kevin Hart, I expect ed more than a 2-star film to associate with his name. Remaking movies from pre vious decades is common, but this copy of the original should not have been pro duced. In spite of the stalled plot line and insignificant conflict, About Last Night fol lowed The Lego Movie to top the box office on the double holiday weekend. Beating out opening date night mov ies Endless Love and Winter’s Tale, it can be argued this re make was successful. The eye candy of Michael Ealy made watching the movie bearable, but much like a disappointing hookup, I left the theatrical encounter unsatisfied and ready to move on.