TL;DR – A film that is made worse by the addition of a lead character that should not be there.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

72 Hours Review Introduction

Today we are looking at a very odd film, because on the surface, this is a comedy that should work, a perfect fish-out-of-water disaster film in the vein of Dude Where Is My Car or Eurotrip. However, there is one narrative choice that permeates the film and makes it worse in every possible way.  

So, to set the scene, Joe (Kevin Hart) is an advertising executive looking to become the chief creative officer. The one problem is that he sucks at connecting with Gen Z, which is becoming a liability to him getting the top job. This is when he accidentally gets included on a group thread for a bachelor party in Miami. It was a mistake, but when the world gives you an opportunity for a purpose-built focus group, you might as well take advantage of it. Though Hunter (Ben Marshall), Freshman (Kam Patterson), Mason (Mason Gooding), and Nick (Marcello Hernández) might not be happy with the exploitation.  

A Very Odd Duckling

This is such an odd film in tone and execution. For example, at times this film seems to be a public service announcement on how great cocaine is, a real glow up, which might be the weirdest sentence I have written this year. Its tonal consistency is all over the place, almost as if it could not decide what sort of comedy it wanted to be, shot a whole lot of choices and then tried to smash it together in the edit. I say this because there are moments when the film comes alive, including a fight in a limo, a surprise final boss, and a solid villain in Michael Mando. But those moments get smothered in blandness, likely due to one key issue.   

Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth

I am going to preface this section by making it clear that I am not having a dig at Kevin Hart, though the film seems to like doing it at every turn, but it does not have the skill of Nikki Glaser to pull it off. Mostly, because I have seen films in which he works really well, most notably Jumanji. However, his character in the film is the core reason why 72 Hours does not work. It almost feels like there was an original story, and then his character was latched onto it like a barnacle on the side of a whale. Joe has zero chemistry with anyone in the film, to the point where I never believed the film’s attempts to pair him with Teyana Taylor’s character. More importantly, they blunted the more interesting story about a friend group about to go through a major change to their dynamic. There was clearly a lot of narrative strength you could have pulled from that friend dynamic, and it still would have worked with the rest of the shenanigans throughout the movie. The core four had real chemistry together, to the point that every time Joe came back on screen I found myself sighing, because the film gets dragged back down to their level.

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend 72 Hours? Look, I laughed twice in this film. Once when Andy Garcia was running a riot so much everyone in the background was breaking, and the second time during the credits when they had the bloopers. For a comedy film, that is not great. Whether it was poor casting or poor writing, something failed this film.  

Have you watched 72 Hours? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked 72 Hours, we would recommend Pizza Film to you because it is playing in the same tonal space that this film is aiming for, but commits to making it land.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of 72 Hours
Directed by – Tim Story
Written by – Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, Kevin Burrows, & Matt Mider
Music by – Christopher Lennertz
Cinematography by – Larry Blanford
Edited by – Peter S. Elliot
Production/Distribution Companies – Sony Pictures, Davis Entertainment Company, Hartbeat Productions, Counterbalance Entertainment, Will Packer Productions, The Story Company, & Netflix
Starring – Kevin Hart, Marcello Hernández, Mason Gooding, Kam Patterson, Ben Marshall, Zach Cherry, Michael Mando, Teyana Taylor, Kevin Dunn, Anna Garcia, Elysée Sanvillé, Geena Quintos, Megan Suri, & Andy Garcia
With – Brandon Dial, Amy Keum, Amenah, Ava Eisenson, Katt Williams, Mike Epps, & Sophia Del Rio
Rating – Australia: MA15+