July 5th, 2013 
James Shotwell 
Film: Let Me Explain
Starring: Kevin Hart
Director: Leslie Small
In addition to the CGI epics and animated adventures dominating the cineplex this holiday weekend, 800 screens will be hosting the first standup film to grace theaters in quite some time. Let Me Explain brings current standup king Kevin Hart’s recent sold out Madison Square Garden performances nationwide, and the results are good enough to warrant skipping the zombies, monsters, minions, and masked cowboys also vying for your box office dollar.
It may be considered poor form to open a review with a complaint, but Let Me Explain‘s biggest flaw is how it opens. The near-hour comedy set you’ve paid to see is wrapped in a fifteen-twenty minute pair of intros that both overstay their welcome. The first features Hart walking around a NYC party while being confronted by a variety of people about his personal life. He replies “Let me explain” over and over before diving into a limo with a Madison Square Garden destination. Had the set started here, the film would move rather smoothly, but instead Hart offers fans a lengthy recap of his recent world tour successes. As if the fact he’s in theaters nationwide with a pair of sold-out Madison Square Garden performances following a career that has skyrocketed in recent years was not enough justification for you having paid to see the show, Hart plays a video memory book of he and his friends looking amazed (and bored) in different locales. It’s nice, for a minute or two, but soon becomes more self-aggrandizing than entertaining.
As for his latest hour, Kevin Hart has done better, but remains amongst the top performers in the comedy game today. He’s at his best when addressing his mistakes by brining to light his fears and insecurities, but all too often Let Me Explain slips into redundant punchlines leaning on over-emphasized uses of “bitch” to earn chuckles. It’s admirable that Hart chose to take a special focusing on the time before, during, and following his divorce to theaters, but the flow and consistency of the material is nowhere near the quality of Laugh At My Pain or Seriously Funny.
In a time where rewarding comedic offerings are slim at the box offering, a lukewarm set from Kevin Hart is still better than most features you could see. It doesn’t take a comedy academic to realize Hart is doing something right if he’s able to sell out 30,000 capacity venues with 57-minutes of material, and Let Me Explain does a fine job of showcasing the level of success he has reached. If you love standup and have the opportunity, I say give Let Me Explain 75-minutes of your time instead of adding to the box office totals of major studio productions. Kevin Hart is still more entertaining than most performers at his most mediocre, and I have no doubt Let Me Explain will leave you with a smile on your face (even if it’s not his finest hour).
SCORE: B
Review written by: James Shotwell (Twitter)
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