David Mamet disowned About Last Night. . . (1986), the Rob Lowe-Demi Moore comedy adapted from his bitter 1974 play Sexual Perversity in Chicago; this African-American remake of the movie retains the happy ending that turned the play on its head, and Mamet’s terse poetry has, quite naturally, been recast in a different rhythm, thanks mainly to the comedy riffing of pint-size squealer Kevin Hart. His bickering scenes with Regina Hall, playing his ball-busting girlfriend, are more watchable than the straight romance between earnest dreamboat Michael Ealy and pouty Joy Bryant. Mamet’s point was that men and women are hopelessly divided by the way they talk about each other; that gets lost in the porridge here, and the story ends with lovers being reunited by a dog before a water fountain. Steve Pink (Hot Tub Time Machine) directed.
