Joel on Film

It’s a widely understood truth that the success of any comedy resides largely with the actors in the ensemble of such a project, and that might be why the earlier stretches of 72 Hours come as quite a pleasant surprise. The initial idea here is a promising—if ragingly materialistic—one in which an executive with a major liquor label must find a way to make a new brand of vodka marketable with today’s younger adults. On the list of things that concern the everyday American, such things are pretty low on the list—but probably pretty high on the list of what we might call “first world problems.”

That’s fine, though, because we aren’t given any particular reason to dislike Joe, the exec in question, and that’s in large part due to Kevin Hart, who plays the character with an affability that suggests the actor really liked this screenplay and found something worthwhile in a story that, at first, is all about its own party-hardy attitude. Joe is on the precipice of either becoming the chief creative officer at the company or disappearing into the oblivion of obsolescence on account of not remotely understanding the Gen-Alpha lingo he’s incorporated into his latest ad pitch. Luckily, he’s just been added on accident to a group text chat between a number of strangers who are planning a wild bachelor party in Miami.

It’s not exactly a great time to disappear for the eponymous period for Joe and his girlfriend Jennifer (Teyana Taylor), whose own ambitions are far, far greater. She might be in line for a major position as a surgeon at a prestigious medical institution, and they only have, well, a predictable number of days to decide. What follows is pretty much what we expect from a scenario like this: a lot of wild antics and misunderstandings that inevitably make it back to Jennifer in some way, causing some superficial drama in his home life.

That is, ultimately, part of the problem and the downfall of the movie, but it’s certainly at its best—or, at least, nearest to being pretty decent—in the scenes with the young partygoers. They’re a mostly interchangeable bunch, although the ones that stand out here are played by Marcello Hernandez, as the de facto leader of the group, and Ben Marshall, as a sad-sack who has just been dumped by his girlfriend, described by another character as “the love of his life.” The other two are less defined, but Mason Gooding and Kam Patterson are good sports here, going along with the gag to get a few laughs.

The manner of how the movie goes about to get laughs is ultimately a little disappointing, as the committee of screenwriters here (Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider) just sort of drop Joe and his five new friends into a bunch of random, occasionally confounding scenarios. Some of these are pretty funny, such as when Joe develops stomach problems from drinking too much of an antacid or when a couple of cops (including one played by Mike Epps) get themselves involved to find out why Joe is selling the other, 20-years-younger guys. Others are very much not funny, as in an extended, two-part sequence of events in which some young women with robbery on the mind decide to slip the men some roofies, only for the whole thing to erupt into a violent brawl, complete with some blood loss.

The ultimate example of a gag that really doesn’t work, but which the screenwriters and director Tim Story devote a shocking amount of time to, is a subplot involving a cartel, including a drug lord (played by Andy Garcia) and his son (played by Michael Mando) who might have some problems more immediate but far less pressing to worry about than the prospect of law enforcement swooping in at any moment on account of all the hubbub. How we get to that point from the initial premise is anyone’s guess. Then again, this is also a movie that features the genitals of a whale as a major plot device.

The early promise of 72 Hours, then, gives way to a lot of errant nonsense, random gags and a subplot that fits none of them or, for that matter, anything else. The actors continually prove they deserve better.

Rating: ** (out of ****)