Kevin Hart's '72 Hours' premieres on Netflix: a generation-gap comedy that critics call a 'Hangover' retread
The comedy, directed by Tim Story and starring Hart alongside SNL cast members, follows an ad exec who crashes a bachelor party to study Gen Z.
Plot
Joe Nixon, a 40-year-old advertising executive played by Kevin Hart, is accidentally copied into a group text for a bachelor party in Miami. Desperate to prove he can still connect with Gen Z consumers after his latest vodka campaign is dismissed as "cringe," he bankrolls a lavish Airbnb and crashes the weekend. The party includes Mason (Mason Gooding), the groom, and his friends Nick (Marcello Hernández), Hunter (Ben Marshall), and Freshman (Kam Patterson). After a yacht party, Joe is forced to consume cocaine, which triggers a Tony Montana-like alter ego named Ricardo Montana. The persona draws the group into conflict with a real drug lord, played by Michael Mando, who believes Joe is encroaching on his turf. The film also weaves in a subplot about Joe's girlfriend Jennifer (Teyana Taylor), who is waiting for a marriage proposal.
Cast and crew
Tim Story, who previously directed Hart in "Ride Along," helms the comedy. The screenplay is by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, the duo behind the "Harold & Kumar" trilogy and "American Reunion." The cast features three current "Saturday Night Live" cast members: Hernández, Marshall, and Patterson. Will Packer produced the film. The New York Times notes that Hart, now 47, plays a character a few years younger, and the movie itself becomes a commentary on the comedian's own efforts to stay relevant with younger audiences.
Critical reception
Reviews are split. The New York Times calls the humor "broad and crude and often genuinely funny," praising Hart's delivery and the chemistry with his younger co-stars. AP News describes the film as "a highly engineered product" that knowingly references "The Hangover," but adds that the meta-commentary on Hart's career gives it a sly edge. Variety is less impressed, labeling it a "mediocre 'Hangover' knockoff" that "frantically throws everything at the wall." The Wall Street Journal's brief review notes Hart's ubiquity but offers little else.
The humor is broad and crude and often genuinely funny.
This latter-day 'Hangover' retread did not need to do anything but, you know, deliver laughs.
Themes and tone
The movie leans into the generation gap, with Hart's character mocked for outdated ideas and a Fanta ad that plays with a pronoun pun. In one scene, Joe mimes an Asian stereotype and is quickly ridiculed by the younger men. AP News observes that the film is "a just-sly-enough commentary on Hart's own comic tastes clashing with more politically correct sensibilities." The cocaine-induced alter ego, an impersonation of Al Pacino in "Scarface," is presented as a potentially dubious parody that the movie itself acknowledges.
Release details
"72 Hours" premiered on Netflix on July 24, 2026. It is rated R for language and themes, and runs 1 hour 45 minutes. The film reunites Hart with Story and Packer, a team that has delivered several commercially successful comedies for the streamer.
