Sonny (Kevin Hart) is a stay-at-home dad who spends all of his free time volunteering for his kid’s high school. When his wife Maya and the kids go on spring break, allowing for Sonny to have his first real me-time in years, he decides to reconnect with his old best friend Huck (Mark Wahlberg) who he hasn’t seen in years. Huck is almost the opposite of Sonny; he’s a party-goer and thrower with no kids, and hasn’t ever really grown up. Together, they go on a bender for Huck’s 44th birthday that nearly upends his entire life.
Also in the cast of Me Time are Regina Hall, Andrew Santino, Che Tafari, Amentii Sledge, Diane Delano, Kamilah Michelle Hatcher, Luis Gerardo Méndez, and more. It’s written and directed by John Hamburg.
“There’s some scenes in it that when we did our test screenings with audiences, 300-400 person theaters, that just get a really big reaction,” commented Hamburg, “it’s fun to have those moments. There’s not that many of these types of comedies being made. It’s no surprise that the world is having some challenges, we’re going through some challenges and have been for quite some time. So I just want people to sit on their couches and relax and just watch Kevin Hart get tortured for 95 minutes.”
Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg in Me Time
“I directed Kevin way early on in his career and in my career when we were both much younger,” explained Hamburg, “and since that time, he’s become a global icon. But he’s still the same incredibly funny, positive person that I worked with back then. Kevin is explosively funny. He is a great actor. I don’t think he gets enough credit for what a good actor he is, because he really does commit to the characters. He’s so inventive, comedically. And then Mark comes at it from a different point of view. He’s very professional, knows every line, every word, and he’s sneakily hilarious. And so you get that combination, and it’s really interesting, because they’re two different kind of actors, but they’re both so good at what they do and get along so well. It ended up being quite a joy to work with the two of them.”
It’s just fun. You get involved in it. I remember even on set, Kevin was pitching us some jokes from his upcoming stand up tour. I thought he was just talking, but what I realized was, ‘Oh, Kevin is trying out material. I’m actually hearing material from probably the biggest stand up comedian on the planet.’ You just work with so many talented people, and you work really hard and try to do the best you can, but also, you don’t take for granted that you’re working with some of the most talented humans on the planet.
Hart and Wahlberg certainly do make for a hilarious combination, of course, with the help of well-written dialogue and actions by Hamburg. Though, he did note that there was room for improvisation, being one of the reasons he stacked the cast with so much stellar talent.
“Improv is a big part of my process. I work as hard as I can and make the script as good as possible, because we know we have that, and then we explore on the set. Try this, try that, Kevin would throw ideas out, so did Mark and Regina. It’s why I populated the movie with such a stellar supporting cast of funny people because they bring so much to it. I’m kind of on set hosting a dinner party and try to guide it and make sure we stay on track and make sure the story is being told, but allow people the freedom to be as creative as they can be. And they surprise me every day. That’s one of the joys of not just being the writer, but the director as well,” said Hamburg.
Best Scenes in Me Time
There are numerous big moments throughout Me Time, whether it be when Sonny and Huck soft-core mess up Maya's clients house, an encounter that Hart has with a mountain lion which leaves him torn up, a life or death situation with a tortoise, or debatably, the best is a surprise appearance by Seal.
“We reached out to him, and he loves comedy and is a real sport. We had this phone call where he was in England, doing a concert or something, and I just explained the story and explained that it was quite reverential towards him that Kevin’s character was a singer-songwriter named Dr. Silk, and his favorite artist is Seal. He was cracking up and he worked it out with his schedule, and the next thing you know, we’re on set with one of the great musical icons of the last 30 years,” said Hamburg.
As for the scene where Hart fights a mountain lion, Hamburg explained that it “took a lot of meetings, a lot of effort, a lot of prep, to make it look seamless because it’s a big visual effects scene… [on set] Kevin’s wrestling with a blue stuffed animal, but you’re going to feel that it’s a mountain lion in the end. And then, of course, Kevin has to sell it.”
Me Time is out now on Netflix.