Get Hard is tasteless, silly, formulaic in parts, but it's still a hell of a lot of fun.
In a modern take on Eddie Murphy's Trading Places, Will Ferrell plays rich financier James King, who's got everything going for him. He's engaged to super-sexy Alissa (Alison Brie), who's the daughter of his boss, mega-millionaire Martin Barrow (Craig T Nelson).
But life is going to be turned upside down when he's wrongly accused of fraud, and sentenced to 10 years in San Quentin.
As the movie tells us time and again, rich boys don't do well in maximum- security prisons, so James enlists the help of the only black man he knows, his car-wash attendant Darnell Lewis (Kevin Hart).
Presuming that because he's black he's been in jail, James pays him to to get him hard, ie ready to take whatever is thrown at him in prison.
Trouble is, Darnell gladly takes the money, but is a family man, with not so much as a parking ticket.
What follows is a training regime, where James's house is turned into a prison for role play as the days tick down to his incarceration.
Cue scenes involving how to be gay, befriend white supremacists and black gangsters and hide improvised weapons in body cavities.
It's either a tale of poverty and race relations, or just a very silly comedy.
Whatever: Ferrell and Hart are a great double act, and you'll still laugh despite yourself.