Movie Details
| Title: | Road Hard | |
| Director: | Adam Carolla, Kevin Hench | |
| Year: | 2015 | |
| Genre: | Comedy | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 11.08.15 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 11.08.15 | Blu-ray | This Screening is part of event: DVRfest 2015 So what happens with these kickstarter movies is that by the time I actually do get my DVD or Blu-ray or whatever then I've already moved on because everyone else has seen it and the disc just sits on the piles for months and months. That's what DVRfest is for though so that's why I'm watching these. For a time I listened to Adam Carolla's podcast pretty regularly. I didn't buy his books but I did back his film. Since then, I've stopped listening to his podcast because it's kind of the same thing over and over again, but I'm on record for liking his first film The Hammer and hoped this would be as good. It mostly is. Again, Carolla recognizes his limitations as an actor and writes a role that's 99% himself. The scenes where he has to emote things other than cynicism and depression feel a bit strained but they're minimal (just like The Hammer). This movie is well shot and there's a bunch of familiar faces in small roles that fill the film with smirk-worthy appearances and the script doesn't have any huge problems and it doesn't drag... so in that regard this is a pretty good movie. My issue is the familiarity. It's probably a bit unfair to expect something completely different from a guy who more or less says the same stuff every day on his podcast, but I was surprised by how much material was taken directly from the show. So when David Alan Grier does his phramaceutical bit or his Teddy Pendergrass bit, it feels like a not-as-funny version of the hilarious moments on the podcast. Similarly, the stand up bits and the rants and anecdotes that Carolla's character recounts to his friends in the movie are pretty much taken directly from stuff that felt organic and natural when I heard it the first time but now feel regurgitated and shaped to fit a different mold. Again, this is probably unfair to the film itself, and as time goes on if I'm in the mood to revisit Adam Carolla's comedy I might be more inclined to watch this film again rather than listen to his podcast, or if his podcast ever changes then this will be a more palatable historical record of the stuff he was doing at the time that I was a listener rather than reading his books. All that is to say that I liked the movie ok but didn't really hear any new jokes. However, there were a few meta things that I found amusing while watching. For one, they used Carolla's house as Larry "Babydoll" Miller's house in the film, so there's a huge thing where Carolla is complaining about how much money his agent has, using his own toys as examples... which is kind of odd and funny. But also, it let me see inside Carolla's house (which I've heard A LOT about on his podcast) so that was pretty sweet. Also, i'm guessing they used Nick Offerman's woodshop as Diane Farr's late husband's garage, and cameos from Carolla's dog and ex co-worker Alison Rosen and some of that stuff peppered throughout. But, on a positive note, the movie did have a bit of the same heart that The Hammer had and presents all the things that I like about Carolla: his everyone-is-crazy-but-me observations, his refusal to play the game, and his love-me-or-hate-me induvidualism. So for that I liked this movie. It was pretty good. |
