Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Night School

December 29, 2018

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Night School

Night School struggled with critics, but did quite well with over $100 million worldwide. Were critics right? Or was there a reason audiences seemed to connect to the film?

The Movie

The movie begins with Teddy studying for the SATs. He’s really trying, but just can’t seem get any of the facts to stick. At the actual test, he has what could be described as a panic attack, and quits, not just the test, but high school and everything. He makes a real scene that should have been really embarrassing, but...

We flash forward to the present day and most of the things he claimed he would do he did. Teddy got himself a job as a salesman, and a really great one. He’s successful enough to get himself a fancy car, which was he other promise. And he’s dating a beautiful and rich woman, Lisa. He’s doing well for himself and his day gets even better when his boss, Joe, tells him he’s planning on leaving his store to Teddy when he retires. That’s the good news. There’s bad news, however. He’s living way beyond his means and, as his friend, Marvin, points out, he’s financial situation is a house of cards and one misstep could cause it all to come down. He’s so desperate, that he does something... unacceptable to get out of a bill at the restaurant Lisa helped set up for work. He ends up getting someone fired as a result.

That misstep comes when Teddy proposes to Lisa at his place of work. He tells her about his boss giving him the business when he retires and wants Lisa to help him take it to the next level. She accepts his proposal, but when he pops the cork on some champagne, it causes a propane gas leak, which in turn causes the place to blow up. Lisa is fine, Teddy’s a little singed, but Joe decides not to rebuild, leaving Teddy unemployed. Marvin does offer Teddy a job as a stock broker, but he needs his GED first. Teddy isn’t interested in going back to school, but maybe he was charm his way into getting his GED.

Nope. Teddy heads to the school, gets into a fight with a woman at a red light, and when he finally meets the principal, it’s Stewart. The pair didn’t get along in school. Stewart even lies to Teddy about not having a night school. However, while he’s leading Teddy out of the school, the pair bump into Carrie, the woman from the red light, who is the night school teacher. She at least agrees to teach him, but she’s not going to be an easy on him.

When Teddy goes to school that night, we meet the rest of his class. There’s Jaylen, who was fired when a robot replaced him at the factory. Theressa got pregnant in high school and now needs her GED to get a job so she and her family are not drowning in bills. Mila is an actual high schooler who is there to avoid going to juvie on drug charges. Luis is the waiter Teddy got fired, so that’s awkward. Mackenzie is there for two reasons. He’s hoping to move up to a management position at work and he’s also trying to get his son to stay in school and graduate. Finally there’s Bobby, who is attending night school via TV, because he’s in prison.

So we’ve got the basic setup and we’ve met the cast. From now on, any plot points are spoilers, so we’ll end the plot summary there.

Night School is a textbook example of average. There is so much comedic talent in this movie, but for every joke that lands, there are two that miss. They try to compensate by having a rapid fire pace, but that just makes it feel like an overstuffed sitcom rather than a quality movie. This is a problem with a lot of movies that have improvised dialog. A tightly written script is almost always funnier, but coming up with well-crafted jokes is harder than firing out as many as possible and keeping the ones that work in editing. Like I said, it is not a bad movie, just average. There are enough jokes that work that it was worth watching and there are some good character moments here and there. However, it adds up to a rental, no more.

Also, don’t watch the extended edition. It’s just longer and the pacing is worse than the theatrical version, and the theatrical version was already about 10 minutes too long.

The Extras

Extras begin with an audio commentary track with the director, Malcolm D. Lee. This track is only available on the theatrical version and not the extended unrated version. There is also an alternate opening, as well as six deleted scenes with a total running time of 14 minutes. Both of these have an optional audio commentary track. There are also 11 minutes of outtakes.

The first featurette is Night School’s in Session, which is an eight-part, 13-minute look at the cast of the film. Who’s the Student? Who’s the Teacher? is a three-minute look at the conflict between the two main characters and the chemistry between the two actors. Prom Night Revisited is a three-minute featurette with the cast talking about their prom experiences. Cap ‘N Gown ‘N Giggles is a two-minute look at the graduation scene. Making of the Dance Battle is a behind-the-scenes featurette on Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish learning the dance moves for the movie’s dance battle. Christian Chicken is a fake ad for the fake restaurant in the movie. Game Over is a two-minute featurette on Maya, who’s one of Teddy’s foils in the movie. Finally, there’s an extended performance for “El Seuno”, which is from the prom.

There’s a lot of extras, but many of them of awfully short.

The Verdict

If you are a fan of the cast, then Night School is worth checking out. However, unless you are a hardcore fan of Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish, then it is probably only worth a rental. The DVD / Blu-ray / 4K have a lot of extras, but most of them are quite short and insubstantial.

Filed under: Video Review, Night School, Kevin Hart, Fat Joe, Taran Killam, Malcolm D. Lee, Romany Malco, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Rob Riggle, Ben Schwartz, Tim Ware, Anne Winters, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Tiffany Haddish, Al Madrigal, Yvonne Orji