“Night School” is a film about someone who covers up their unfavorable past in order to put the focus on their successful present, before being exposed to the world. Funny then that, while the film is being marketed as the follow up from 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, 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, Keith David, Ben Schwartz and Taran Killam, no one manages to stand out even remotely. Tiffany Haddish is the most memorable, but that’s mainly due to her getting the most screen time.
Some of the film’s concepts manage to be pretty genius, in theory. Taran 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 the characters 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 characters grow at 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.
The 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 comedies that have been released over the years. This doesn’t mean the film is bad. It just means it's 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 but nothing more.
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.
The film’s last 20 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 20 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
