Me Time Parent Guide

Sonny Fisher (Kevin Hart) is an incredibly attentive father. While his wife, Maya (Regina Hall), supports the family with her work as an architect, Sonny stays home with the kids, chairing the PTA, and volunteering for every field trip. This arrangement has worked for the couple for years, but Maya is worried that Sonny hasn’t had any time to pursue his own interests and insists that he enjoy some time for himself while she takes the kids away for spring break. She even encourages him to go to the forty-fourth birthday party of his rowdy old friend, Huck Dembo (Mark Wahlberg).

Once Sonny starts living more in the moment and less in his busted minivan, things start spiraling out of control very quickly – especially when he learns that Maya’s charming client, Armando (Luis Gerardo Mendez), has appeared at her parents’ home in a ritzy seaplane, asking her to come consult on a private island he wants to buy. If Sonny’s not careful, though, he’s liable to do more damage to his marriage than Armando ever could.

Kevin Hart is no stranger to buddy comedies, and this one is essentially interchangeable with any of his others. Central Intelligence, The Man from Toronto, Ride Along, take your pick. Hart plays a well intentioned but thoroughly suburban man who quickly gets caught out of his element with a riskier friend, played by the biggest star the studio can afford to play straight man. That formula appears to be profitable, but I wish they’d try anything different at this point.

As far as parents are concerned, Me Time has other problems besides unoriginality. There’s a fair bit of profanity, some goofy violence, and some social drinking, but the real issue is with the film’s frequent innuendo. I mean, sure, if you’re here because you want to see Mark Wahlberg’s butt cheeks glistening in the sun, then you’re in for a treat. For those of us who didn’t turn up to stare at a 51-year-old Bostonian’s buns, it’s less enthralling.

I guess I’m just running out of patience with seeing the exact same movie time and time again. Maybe I’ve lost any appreciation for Kevin Hart’s comic stylings, maybe I’m just not a burnt out suburban dad, but this is getting really old. If you’re an ardent fan of Kevin Hart, you’ll probably have some fun with this. I, on the other hand, can think of far more entertaining ways to spend 101 minutes of my finite and continually dwindling life. Like cleaning my bathroom. Or shampooing the carpet. Or watching paint dry…