Big Picture Big Sound

Netflix has resuscitated the term "Movie of the Week" with its constant output of algorithmic - gulp - content. They are starting to learn that multiple movies per week might be a bit too much and not financially stable, so it's a wonder they keep bankrolling tired comedies like the Kevin Hart-Mark Wahlberg headlined "Me Time."

Director and writer John Hamburg has directed some truly funny movies ("I Love You, Man" and "Along Came Polly") and some entirely unfunny ones ("Why Him?" and "Little Fockers"). His latest fits squarely in the middle of the spectrum of his career. "Me Time" isn't offensively bad, just deeply uninspired and often quite lousy looking. It's also a movie that hands down a generic lesson taught in many movies before it.

Hart stars as Sonny Fisher, who grew up with his best friend Huck Dembo (Wahlberg). As it happens for most people, Sonny and Huck have drifted over the years. Sonny is a stay-at-home dad, married to his architect wife Maya (Regina Hall, always great, even when she is underserved by a film's screenplay) and is in charge of the day-to-day tasks that come with raising two children. Huck, on the other hand, hasn't changed much and still likes to live a carefree life and party hard.

Sonny is stringent in his scheduling and is constantly hounding his son to practice the keyboard for the upcoming talent show (these types of movies always end at a talent show, don't they?), which he is running. Since settling down and keeping the house running, Sonny hasn't taken much time for himself. Huck has continually tried to get Sonny to join his group for his 44th birthday celebration, which he eventually gives in to.

Hijinks ensue and well-worn scenarios are slapped on screen, but never produce any laughs. Hamburg has proven himself to be a good director of comedy, but "Me Time" limps along to the finish line, creating one outlandish scenario after another. Again, all of the been-there, done-that in "Me Time" would be okay if any of it was funny.

Maybe more than the wacky shenanigans Sonny and Huck get into, "Me Time" is about the lesson of taking time for yourself, no matter your situation. The movie wants you to know it's okay to not constantly be on your A-game as a parent, and that you can do that without the world falling apart. Did you really need "Me Time" to tell you that?

Hart is obviously known as a comedic actor and Wahlberg has been in his share of studio comedies, but their energies don't match to create any odd couple chemistry. Hart is trying to be more reserved as Sonny, but his manic persona continually slips through. Wahlberg's frat boy in a grownup's body has been done in better films, but there's really no exploration of why he's stuck in place. Is that what "Me Time" should be about? Maybe not, but if the screenplay is going to introduce a friendship fractured by time, perhaps there's something there that could be used instead of one too many fecal pratfalls.

In their defense, Netflix does attract premiere directors, whose passion projects have found a home at a studio willingly to foot their bill. There would be no "The Irishman" or "Marriage Story" without Netflix, but their incessant need to pump movies out all year long is starting to catch up with them. The junky action pictures and lazy comedies they put out have a similar life cycle: Release, spend time in the Top 10 movies viewed, and then never spoken about again. "Me Time" is just another movie off the Netflix conveyor belt.