Review: "Live Stream From Hell"
Kevin Hart is in every movie; he has done television, acting, producing, writing... he's done a lot of things, but never a "Streamer" until now.
Kevin Hart wants to remain relevant. He has done so much with his career and accomplished so many things he never thought he would. As successful as he is, he doesn't want that to slow down or disappear. Hoping to remain on the cutting edge of media as a whole, Kevin recognizes that streaming is the current big thing and possibly will remain that way for years to come.
Just like everything he does, and possibly because of his stature, when Kevin Hart does something, he does it big. So, to kick off what he hopes is a long-running career as a streamer, he gets some of the biggest names in streaming to be on his first show. He brings on Druski and Kai Cenat, who have a combined following of about 50 million. Kevin also has wired up his house with 100s of cameras to cover basically ALL angles of his house, both inside and out. When Druski and Kai show up, they are taken on a tour of the house and shown what all Kevin has done to get ready. They both think it might be a bit overkill considering he has never streamed before, but once the "Go Live" button is hit, it's game on, and they won't stop.
Now Streaming! Kevin, Druski, and Kai all have their game faces on, and at least two of them fall back into the mode they know so well, performing and talking to chat. The group plays games; they also invite in special guests, like Marshawn Lynch, Kel Mitchell, and even Jerry O'Connell, who shows up for a cooking segment. Things are going along well enough for a first-timer, that is, until the first body shows up. As Kevin attempts to cover things up and move on, things only get worse for him until it can no longer be hidden from the cameras and chat.
I want to start off by saying that other than Kevin Hart, Druski, Marshawn, Kel, and Jerry O'Connell, I didn't know anyone else in the film. I'm sure they are all popular in their own right and vocation, but the star power was completely lost on me. Even Druski, I only know from random internet clips on social media. Having said all that, I don't think my lack of understanding of these folks detracted from the movie.
I was skeptical that Live Stream From Hell would even be something that I could make it all the way through due to my old man hatred of how some streamers and social media muminaries speak. To my surprise, most, if not all, of that was toned way down. Sure, there was the occasional call-out to have chat comment on something or random "Throw an [X] in the chat if you want..." but that was also kept to a minimum. The constantly running "chat" on the side of the screen was distracting, but also offered up some funny jokes randomly as well.
The entire movie is ridiculous, naturally. Any streaming service worth its salt would have shut this down immediately following the first "incident" on camera... except maybe Facebook b/c they will stream actual murders... aaaaaanyway. Apart from the swearing, this honestly could have been a "Made For TV" movie. There is nothing in it that isn't really found everywhere else in media. It all just felt a bit boring. There are some good jokes and some good bits, but meh. It's not really a bad movie; it just wasn't exciting. I knew who the killer was before the reveal, and even after the setup for the possible sequel, I have a pretty good guess who is going to be the ACTUAL big bad. Much like if it were (outside of the killings) an actual stream, it would make for a good first-blush attempt. I will watch the sequel should it ever get produced. End Stream.
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