“Kevin Hart: What Now?” is a weird concept concert film. Sure, Murphy did things similar with “Raw”. But that was a 3-5 minute long short in the film’s opening that helped to explain what was coming next. This film has 20 minutes of its runtime dedicated to a James Bond parody that makes no sense. Kevin Hart gets to outsmart Don Cheadle and forced Halle Berry to say nice things about him. All the while, fans are waiting for the concert film to start.
In terms of audience size, it’s a big deal for a comedian to sell out the Linc. Football stadiums are huge and it’s incredibly rare for a comedian to command that size of an audience. It’s just that the documentary is cut in a way to feel more like a TV Special. You don’t film TV specials in a football stadium. You don’t have comedians mugging and quick cuts to the audience like this is Bill Cosby making fat cash for FOX in 1983. Emulation only works when you consider time and relevance to the material at hand. Part of that is why I’m starting to have a problem with Kevin Hart. The guy is too busy laughing at his own jokes to get a read on the audience.
