Netflix seemingly has an endless supply of cash at its disposal to pay big money to big stars and have them feature in original movies and TV shows with even bigger budgets, but it wouldn’t be ridiculous to say the streaming service hasn’t gotten its money’s worth out of Kevin Hart.
The actor and his HartBeat production company signed an exclusive development deal with the company that was described as being “Adam Sandler-sized” in terms of its monetary value, but it would be an understatement to say the rewards to have been reaped are nothing compared to what the Sandman and his Happy Madison outfit have delivered consistently for years.
However, Netflix is trying again to ensure that Hart doesn’t become associated with nothing but dud after dud, and the first trailer for high-flying heist thriller Lift promises to deliver disposable entertainment that’ll no doubt catch on with audiences, but looks about as formulaic as the majority of the streamer’s star-powered output in virtually every other respect.
Fatherhood may have become one of Netflix’s Top 10 most-watched original movies of all-time, but it technically wasn’t an original after it was purchased from Sony and released mid-pandemic. Buddy comedy The Man from Toronto was thrashed by critics, while Hart and Mark Wahlberg’s team-up in Me Time notched a six percent Rotten Tomatoes score to become one of the worst-reviewed Netflix originals ever.
Then there’s dramatic miniseries True Story with Wesley Snipes, which nobody really remembers because it flopped among viewers. Will fourth time mark the charm with Lift? Only time will tell, but Hart really needs to deliver something for Netflix that isn’t widely-panned for once.