The Stream: For a short movie, it feels long.

The Big Screen: Good action sequences and random funny moments.

The Final Bill: A good follow up to Die Hart with some random comedy bits.

– S2S: Movie
Director: Eric Appel
Writers: Tripper Clancy, Derek Kolstad
Stars: Kevin Hart, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ben Schwartz
Genre: Action, Comedy
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour 29 minutes
Production Companies: Hartbeat Productions
Platform: Released on Prime Video May 30, 2024
Coming Soon to Prime Video: Marlon Wayans: Good Grief, Counsel Culture, Power of the Dream, Federer: Twelve Final Days, I Am: Celine Dion, My Lady Jane,  

Welcome back to prime streaming time, Streamers! This past weekend Kevin Hart attacked your comedy taste buds with the second installment of his Die Hart series, Die Hart 2: Die Harter.  Hart plans to keep his action star momentum going by making a new action film with unscripted, unexpected scenes similar to his first movie. However, his lifestyle leads him to fall into a revenge plot scenario.  Kev Hart comedy hijinks ensue.

I’ll be honest I missed the first Die Hart when it came out, but I caught up in order to watch this film.   Ultimately, I don’t think it’s wholly necessary in order to watch this flick, but it would be helpful in the beginning to understand his motivation. Speaking of motivation, this movie’s initial premise about an alternate reality life of Kevin Hart is pretty clever. It actually works better in this installment than in the first. Die Harter felt closer to reality than the first, which makes the spoof parts funnier rather than ridiculous like the first movie.

Nevertheless, this movie still has some funny parts and ridiculous parts, which is just the nature of these Hartbeat…. productions. The cast in this movie excels in both, but sometimes it’s just annoying. In fact, Kevin’s character is more annoying and less likeable than he is in real life. I understand that’s what they may be going for, but they may have succeeded too much. John Cena is a maniac. Ben Schwartz is a maniac. Of course, they found a way to make Nathalie Emmanuel not funny at all, which seems unfair. Anyway, the cast as a whole is okay and make the movie worth watching. The writing and pacing of this movie are pretty subpar but saved by the energy of the cast members. Even though the movie is relatively short, it for some reason feels like an eternity. Quite frankly, there’s not much to this simple but convoluted storyline but it takes forever to get to the end. And then, the end is where most of the really good action takes place. There’s action sprinkled throughout but the end is where the money lies.

At the end of the day, what can I say it’s Kevin Hart. If you saw the first Die Hart, then you know what you signed up for. Die Hart 2: Die Harter has its funny, annoying, and action-filled moments. What more can you really ask for in an hour and twenty minutes you already knew you were probably wasting! Kevin Hart fans, grab a small bowl because it doesn’t live up to the production of something like Ride Along, but it still will gives you the giggles. Everyone else, grab a handful of popcorn and stream this if you’re bored.