Night School (2018) * *

Directed by:  Malcolm D. Lee

Starring:  Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Rob Riggle, Fat Joe, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Anne Winters, Keith David, Taran Killam, Al Madrigal, Romany Malco, Ben Schwartz

Night School is an amiable comedy with a few laughs, some desperate gross-out humor, and then is soon over; likely not to stay in our minds for too long after viewing.    It's not terrible, but mostly forgettable.    There aren't any surprises, except for one character's amazing ability to heal after falling from a rooftop and seemingly dislocating his shoulder in a nasty way. 

We first meet Teddy (Hart) in high school spectacularly flubbing the SAT exam.    Words, equations, and problems don't simply fly off the page in Teddy's mind, they assault him.    He drops out of high school, but manages to land a nice girlfriend and a secure job as a barbeque grill salesperson.    Sure he can't afford his flashy sports car or the engagement ring, but otherwise life is pretty good, until one day it isn't.    The barbeque grill store burns to the ground thanks to Teddy's idiocy, and he finds he needs to get his GED in order to work at this best friend's firm as a financial analyst.

Teddy enrolls in night school at his former high school, where the nerd he picked on then is now the principal who uses Joe Clark (from Lean on Me) as inspiration.    Perhaps too much.    The night school teacher, Carrie Carter (Haddish), does her best with her class of misfits who in the 1970's would be at home on Welcome Back Kotter.    Besides Teddy, the class consists of a mother of three trying to get out from under her husband's thumb (Rajskub), a prisoner who Skypes into the class (Fat Joe), a teenage delinquent (Winters), a paranoid conspiracy theorist (Madrigal), and a former waiter who lost his job thanks to Teddy (Madrigal).    The characters have names, but I can't recall them and I'm too lazy to look them up.

No matter.   Night School tries to spread around the laughs, but this is mostly Hart's film, with Haddish chiming in with some laughs as the weary teacher who nonetheless does her best to reach Teddy and pierce through his defenses caused by a lack of confidence and a variety of learning disabilities.    Teddy may have a fiancée he loves, but he and Haddish have some decent chemistry, although any attempt at a romantic relationship is quickly squelched with a revelation out of left field.    Not much effort is made to flesh out Teddy's fiancée.    She is nice, sweet, intelligent, and kind of bland.    You could almost use those adjectives to describe the movie she's in as well.