Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Die Hart 2’ on Roku Channel, a Continuation of Kevin Hart’s Silly Quibi Spoof

Quibi went kaput in spectacularly quick fashion, but some of its content lives on via the Roku Channel. (Sadly, we can’t say the same thing for Reese Witherspoon and Jim Toth’s marriage.) Case in point, Kevin Hart vehicle Die Hart, which reportedly drew a large enough viewership to justify a second season, Die Hart 2, therefore allowing its A-list headliner to continue playing a version of himself, a comedy superstar who yearns to cross over to action movies. You’ve no doubt noticed the Play On Words in the title, a punny reference not just to the greatest action movie ever made, Die Hard, but an acknowledgment of what nearly happens in the first season, you know, when Hart nearly Dies. It has LAYERS, see. Note to those who want to catch up: You can either watch the first season in its original bite-size chunks on Roku Channel, or head on over to Amazon Prime Video and fire up the “movie” version, which pieces them all together into one 84-minute chunk. Now, on to Die Hart 2, which picks up after our goofball protagonist has successfully launched the ass-kickin’ second phase of his career. 

DIE HART 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Establishing shot: Hollywood. There are billboards with Hart’s face on them (and also other Roku Channel originals, because this series is META as heck).

The Gist: Kevin Hart (Kevin Hart) got what he wanted, but he still isn’t happy. (Such is life!) He and co-star Jordan King (Nathalie Emmanuel) have busted many blocks with their action-flick resurrection of The Jeffersons. But Kevin wants to keep movin’ on up, to the next echelon of action-movie superstardom. And that means he wants to do that hardcore Tom Cruise shit where he does his own stunts. He lunches with movie producer Debra London (Melissa Ponzio) to pitch his idea for an “improvised action” movie, and she rolls her eyes as he hauls out a massive script that Dwayne Johnson would struggle to deadlift. 

Suddenly, a bunch of black-clad, heavily armed crooks rappel from the restaurant ceiling, and before you can say yippee-ki-yay-motherfather, Kevin takes them out, complete with sweep kicks and headbutts and wisecracks. But it wasn’t real! He staged the whole scene to show Debra how he can do the real thing, with no green screens or CGI or any of that bullshit. She doesn’t bite. She’s skeptical. She thinks he’s nuts. She’s a reasonable human being. And Kevin goes home disappointed.

Meanwhile, a ponytailed Eurotrash slickster with mountains of money and an evil look in his eye sees footage of Kevin’s stunt, and calls him for a meeting. This guy is Karl Stromberg (Greg Kriek), and he looks like something that asexually budded off Hans Gruber’s back and grew into a human being. Kevin is so thrilled that someone is interested in funding his movie – and surely also desperate – he pays no mind to all the evil vibes Karl emanates. I mean, the guy practically has stink lines coming off him. And then he full-metal-jacket justifies our suspicions of him by firing a drug dart into Kevin’s neck, knocking him out cold.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Anyone else see the irony that bloated action movies are being spoofed here by a TV series consisting of episodes ranging between 10 and 15 minutes? And that it kinda has more in common with Hart’s action-comedy movie oeuvre – Ride Along, Central Intelligence, The Man From Toronto, etc. – than his TV projects? 

Our Take: Die Hart doesn’t stray at all from the Kevin Hart persona we know (and maybe love, but at least like; he’s always been an amiable, if unchallenging presence in his projects). He’s animated and energetic, mugging away in his comedic comfort zone, surrounded by strong supporting talent in Ponzio (a counter to Hart’s bug-eyed shtick), Kriek (playing a Bond villain funneled through Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker) and Ben Schwartz (as Kevin’s perky personal assistant), with Emmanuel slated to turn up later this season. Whether John Cena, John Travolta or Josh Hartnett will reprise their roles from the first season is yet to be seen, although I’d assert that overstuffing wads of talent into bite-size TV episodes is more likely to water down rather than bolster the overall product. 

One 15-minute episode into Die Hart 2, it’s mostly setup, well-trod jokes about Tom Cruise and Hart’s small stature (something those two stars have in common!) and the type of borderline-Looney Tunes physical comedy that Hart excels at. The “Kevin” character shows potential to gently nudge-wink the idea of an artist’s need to grow and progress in their work, and filtering that concept through the big-ego self-aggrandizement of an action-movie-star caricature is appealing, and modestly inspired. Hart’s broad, commercial charm is difficult to criticize; his projects tend to be a little anemic, but they go down easy, and he often manages to wring laughs even from staid material. So here’s hoping this outing continues to offer a little juicy Hollywood satire without getting too inside-baseball about it, and makes the most of its star. Banking on Kevin Hart’s goofy charisma always offers solid ROI, and that’s almost certainly why Die Hart was one of the few programs to survive Quibi’s high-profile implosion. 

Sex and Skin: None so far.

Parting Shot: Kevin hits the floor, face first.

Sleeper Star: We’ll see if Ponzio turns up in more episodes this season, but the manner in which she lasers through Hart’s OTT fodder with a single line reading – “You’re not well” – leaves an impression. 

Most Pilot-y Line: Karl tells Kevin that he’s about to be in his own category as an action star: “One pea. One pod.”

Our Call: Die Hart 2 is a genial distraction that coasts on its star’s considerable comedic magnetism – and there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as he keeps us laughing. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.