A 40-year-old executive ends up at a three-day bachelor party with twenty-somethings after being mistakenly included in their chat group.
Chuck says:
A good idea that goes awry, Tim Story’s “72 Hours” finds old and new comics vying for screen time in a bachelor party romp set in Miami. Sporting a solid premise and a refreshingly toned-down Kevin Hart, the film’s three screenwriters (?) lean into their worst ideas and allow the story to take three too many wrong turns. Rather than trust in simply letting their well-drawn characters interact, they plunge them into one outlandish situation after another, a strategy of diminishing returns that nearly completely derails what turns out to be a by-the-numbers affair.
In trouble both personally and professionally, Joe (Hart) is in desperate need of a reset. While his girlfriend (a wasted Tyanna Taylor) is waiting for him to put a ring on it, he’s distracted by goings-on at work. Seems he’s gunning for a VP position at the ad agency he’s toiled at for a decade but is meeting resistance from the higher-ups. The ideas of a 40-year-old just don’t speak to the Gen Z population, so Joe is in desperate need of a fresh approach.
He convinces his boss (Kevin Dunn) to give him 72 hours to come up with a fresh campaign for a vodka company they want to land. Joe decides to take some lemons and make lemonade as he’s recently accidently been included in a text feed with a group of twenty-somethings. Seems their planning a bachelor weekend in Miami, so our hero chimes in and says he’ll foot the bill if they allow him to join. Broke and desperate, they agree and soon the old man and this quartet of aimless youths are cavorting on the Florida beaches. What they don’t realize is Joe’s secretly filming them consuming the vodka in question, intent on using this footage in his pitch to the big boss.
The young actors playing the four friends bring an undeniable energy to the movie. SNL alums Marcello Hernandez, Ben Marshall and Kam Patterson as Nick, Hunter and Freshman, have a sense of camaraderie and timing in their scenes that provides the movie with much needed authenticity. Meanwhile, Mason Gooding has the necessary panache to ensure the role of husband-to-be Mason is more than just a bland straight man. Hart’s interactions with them are the highlights, Joe’s cluelessness as to how their generation lives producing some very funny moments.
Unfortunately, narrative insanity must occur in the form of the group getting mixed up with a Miami drug kingpin after they accidentally steal a shipment of cocaine. Before you know it, they’re being chased by Jaze (Michael Mando) and his lackeys, in and out of neon-bathed nightclubs and on the Miami streets. Before all is said and done, Joe, in an effort to bluff their way out of trouble, has assumed the role of a Scarface-like mobster. Needless to say, things only get worse.
It comes as no surprise that Joe learns from his new young friends and they glean wisdom from him. Surprisingly, these moments are done with sincerity, none of them coming off as forced or artificial. And giving credit where it is due, the ending contains a couple pleasant surprises, Story eschewing the expected action climax for a more genuine and amusing conclusion.
Often, the success of a comedy is dependent on the strength of personality of its performers and their chemistry. As far as that’s concerned, “72 Hours” succeeds handsomely. Unfortunately, the unnecessary shenanigans they’re required to engage in regrettably sidetrack things, relegating this to being a standard comedy rather than what could have been a dramedy with heft.
2 1/2 Stars
