What’s better than a connection on-screen where the chemistry builds and builds throughout the movie? Perhaps the bond that two co-stars have prior to making a film together, which might be even better than a newly made one. We’ve come across many friendships off-screen that merge on-screen; think Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in their many movies together like Good Will Hunting, Dogma, Air, and quite a few more, or Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore in the Charlie’s Angels franchise. But one of the funniest modern-day friendships in film is that of Kevin Hart and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
Hart and Johnson have a comical relationship off-screen where they banter back and forth with hilarious commentary about one another. They hold nothing back in their sarcastic jokes, and though Hart may be a comedian, The Rock tends to hold his own very well. The two make impressions of each other, recreate videos to mock each other, and never fail at cracking up in the middle of a conjoined interview. What’s more, their off-screen chemistry carries on-screen, making for an inevitable laugh on all occasions.
5 Fast & Furious: Presents Hobbs & Shaw
Though Kevin Hart doesn’t have a lead role alongside Johnson in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, he features as an Air Marshal. When Hobbs, played by Dwayne Johnson, and Shaw, played by Jason Statham, take flight en route to their new location, Hart appears as an overzealous and witty man.
Hart has just enough screen time to somehow still cause laughs with his The Rock commentary, making his cameo well worth it. He refers to himself as the third squadron to the Hobbs and Shaw duo and somehow manipulates his voice to be similar to a combination of Johnson's and Statham’s, causing even more hilarious banter between the two longtime friends.
4 Jumanji: The Next Level
When a new cast mate attempts to fix the Jumanji game, the four original actors from the first movie Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, including Hart and Dwayne Johnson, emerge back in the jungle for Jumanji: The Next Level. However, this time Hart is voiced by Danny Glover and Johnson is voiced by Danny DeVito.
The voice-to-body ratio makes for an even funnier character portrayal, making the jokes between Hart and Johnson that much better. And when Smolder, played by The Rock, was chased down by an ostrich, you already know Mouse, played by Hart, wasn’t going to lose an opportunity to make fun of one of his better friends for being a terrible driver, the cause of the bird stampede coming after the four friends. The obstacles are strenuous, but the duo stays close, helping the other along the way, making this another strong chemical-acting gig for the pair.
3 DC League of Super-Pets
Get ready, because in the world of everything pets, it’s "walk o’clock" — and if there’s one thing we know about cats and dogs, it’s that they’ll do anything to get what they want and need. From living the simple life at home with their owners to encompassing the city streets with heroic acts in order to save their superhero friends from the film’s antagonists, the group of animal heroes in DC League of Super-Pets gives every Marvel movie a run for their money. The film features Kevin Hart as Ace, a boxer with superstrength who becomes Batman’s pet, and Johnson as Krypto, the ultimate Labrador retriever who is Superman’s pet.
Being that the film is an animated children’s movie, Hart and Johnson are able to dive into their playability with one another, as their jokes inherently come from a place of lightheartedness, resembling that of a longtime friendship that stems from a place of innocence. They continue their banter, make fun of each other’s dog breath, and though they may compete with one another, they reel in their inner loyalty to bring forth a dynamic super-dog duo.
2 Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Four bored teenage friends stumble across a unique console game with mystic qualities unseen. The group starts playing and without warning, each is pulled into the game vortex as adults with superhero capabilities in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
Dr. “Smolder” Xander, played by Johnson, and Franklin “Mouse” Finbar, played by Kevin Hart, appear somewhere in the middle of the jungle alongside their co-stars Jack Black and Karen Gillan. Immediately, they have to work to survive the increasingly harsh conditions. Though their relationship was tested as Smolder the archeologist and Mouse the zoologist, the duo brought their traditional banter to their roles, making this a film of comical alchemy.
1 Central Intelligence
When Bob Stone, played by Dwayne Johnson, grew up being bullied at school for being overweight, Calvin Joyner, played by Kevin Hart, could have never expected that the man with above-average muscles, doubling his size, would be a friend for life. The two may have gone to the same school, but that didn’t mean they were mates. However, Stone did recall the one time that Joyner stood up for him while being made fun of in the school shower, causing Stone to most definitely find a way back to Joyner sometime after graduating.
When the high school reunion invitations went out 20 years later in Central Intelligence, Stone knew exactly what to do. He, being a CIA Agent, found out the background information of Joyner, the senior most likely able to succeed as well as the most popular in school. To Stone’s surprise, Joyner was unhappily married and stuck in a dead-end accountant job. Stone made sure to track him down, using the reunion as a ploy to get close to Joyner so that Stone could use Joyner’s forensic accountant files for a case he was working on.
Stone, having gone MIA in the agency, works his way into Joyner’s home, head, and heart. Joyner ends up helping Stone in more ways than one and ultimately joins the CIA alongside Stone, the friend that helped him just as much as he did for him in school and again when Stone was in trouble with the CIA.
With friendships that carry from off to on-screen like Kevin Hart and The Rock, it’s miraculous that film is able to make headway for their bond to be portrayed through a multitude of characters. Their relationship is uniquely comical, and whenever they grace the screen with their banter, it’s always with laughs, making their work together as entertaining as can be.