Kevin Hart wants to be an action star! School is in session with a manic John Travolta! What could possibly go wrong? Plenty, as we learn in the new flick Die Hart: The Movie, which is premiering exclusively on Amazon Prime on February 24.
Die Hart started life as a 10 episode series on the not-long-for-this-world streaming service Quibi (remember Quibi?) back in 2020 and now, following Quibi absolutely cratering, it’s been edited together to form a feature length (presumably a short feature—the episodes were eight minutes each) film.
The gist: Kevin Hart plays Kevin Hart, who is bridling at always being the comedy sidekick and wants to be an action star. Offered a leading role by action auteur Claude Van De Velde (Jean Reno—Leon: The Professional) he takes himself off to an action hero boot camp run by the eccentric Ron Wilcox (John Travolta clearly having an absolute blast).
But Ron’s campus is a rundown compound, and Kevin start’s to suspect the madcap maestro is trying to kill him. Can he and fellow student Jordan King (Nathalie Emmanuel—The Fate of the Furious) figure out what’s going on before poor Kevin gets killed in one of Ron’s stunts? Well, probably, but it’s the journey, not the destination.
Sounds like fun! Hart has done plenty of action comedies before, to be sure—Ride Along and Central Intelligence come immediately to mind—and taking the mickey out of him playing second banana to the likes of Dwayne Johnson and Ice Cube feels like rich comedic territory. Comedy veteran Eric Appel (Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, plus a ton of TV) is on directing duties, so we’re in safe hands there. Plus, its short format origin pretty much guarantees there’ll be no flab on it. Sounds like a pretty perfect Friday night in to us.
