About Last Night is a film that continually tries to get to that place where good remakes exist and yet seems to insist on not getting there. It is a film about a funny, charming couple (Regina Hall and Kevin Hart) and a couple whose good looks make them no less boring (Michael Ealy and Joy Bryant.) Unfortunately, the film is significantly more about the latter. This doesn't mean that this remake of an 80s comedy that let's face it---no one really needed to see get remade doesn't have its high share of charming moments. In fact....it has a lot of them. This just means that the film proves the reason that no one wanted to see this subject matter get remade. The film is about a couple who fall in love on a dime and then almost as quickly, get bored with one another. This wouldn't be a problem if the audience wasn't able to feel the boredom with the characters.
Hall and Hart play Joan and Bernie....a couple who seem to differ on whether their relationship is actually headed somewhere of if it's purely carnal. Of course...Bernie, the man suspects that him and Joan are simply having a good time. The film opens with them introducing their respective best friends, Debbie (Bryant) and Danny (Ealy) to one another at a bar and well....I already explained the rest in the paragraph above.
This is the film equivalent of a massage that only last half an hour. It gets you pumped up for more but then disappoints when it has nothing else left. Joan and Bernie are a funny couple who have hilariously snappy banter with one another. This is despite the fact that they spend most of the film broken up and fighting with each other. However, Debbie and Danny are exactly as Joan and Bernie describe them in the film's first scene---boring people who belong together. This can be seen by the fact that Debbie seems to never really understand why Danny wants to spend time with his buddies or in the fact that Danny seems to have a desire to spend a suspicious amount of time with his buddies. This idea of two people who find each other in how dull their lives are is fine but there has to be a reason why the audience should still be pulling for them. Here...viewers will find themselves simply rolling their eyes at the long slog that is these two people's relationship. However, Hall and Hart are always there to, at the very least, partially save it. In fact...these are legitimately excellent performances from them as they portray the kind of people that can be seen anywhere you go.
Although I can't recommend About Last Night....I have a strong desire to and perhaps even feel that there's no reason not to. However, the uninteresting gets in the way of the interesting far too many times to warrant throwing down your hard earned money to sit through it. However, I would definitely recommend catching it on TV in a few months. Trust me...even if you're a fan of Hart and Hall...you can wait.
(2 and 1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for sexual content, language and brief drug use)
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