‘The Upside' Is A Cliche-Ridden, Exploitative Mess

It’s said that January is one of the prime months that Hollywood chooses to dump its most embarrassing films and “The Upside” doesn’t exactly disprove that notion.

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Few films in memory have squandered so much acting talent in such a cliche-ridden, exploitative and dishonest way. It deserves its frozen grave.

The film stars Kevin Hart as a lazy, skirt-chasing ex-con hoping to reconnect with his estranged wife and son. He accidentally gets a job taking care of an obscenely wealthy New York businessman who became a paraplegic while hang gliding, played by Bryan Cranston. (“You as rich as Jay-Z?” Hart’s character asks. “No, richer,” comes the reply.)

You can virtually write the rest as ”The Upside ” unspools. Will Hart’s street-wise Dell break his high-class boss out of his luxury Park Avenue apartment and teach him about the joys of corner-bought weed, street hot dogs and driving the older man’s fleet of Ferraris very fast? Oh, yes. Rich white dudes in these films always need loosening up.

Will Cranston’s Phillip teach his young aide about the joys of opera, investing in start-ups, kumquats and abstract painting? You saw that coming, too, huh? Poor black guys in these films could always use some smartening up.