Let Go (2011) User Reviews

"The Wandering Eye"

[Kamurai25 · 6/10 · 24 February 2021]

Decent watch, probably won't watch again, but can recommend.

It does feel like this is made for a very specific audience, but it is all about how get past your past and make your future (somewhat) better.

The "main" story line seems to be a guy living a boring life is into Gillian Jacobs, which I totally get, but not when you have Maria Thayer at home. Even value, I would take snuggling up comfortably at home over a club any day.

It's the first time I've seen Kevin Hart play a smart character, and it turns arrogant character really fast.

It's also the first time I've seen Simon Helberg play a criminal, and I can't say it was very impressive, though he did do "crazy" well.

There are some great movies that cross multi-threaded stories, but this feels like the Kevin Hart and Old man robbers are just kind of tacked on. There just isn't enough interaction between the the stories.

It's worth a watch, but it's not "Snatch".

Not the best

[sykez-76191 · 4/10 · 25 November 2019]

Good performance from Kevin, infact they all nailed it... Just the story was slow, it wasn't that gripping. It felt like it was leading up to something that never came. It's not the worst movie I've seen but I would deffo not watch it again

IT'S A DRAMA

[niceguylex · 5/10 · 1 October 2021]

The movie is okay but definitely it's not a comedy movie. It's a drama.

NOT A COMEDY !!!

[docm-32304 · 2/10 · 29 December 2020]

This had all the potential to be hilarious, but instead it just dragged along and went into a depression. How it can be classed as a comedy is a complete lie.

The type of movie that is lighthearted and non-offensive. Your can just put this in and laugh, that is a good thing. I say B.

[cosmo_tiger · 7/10 · 19 August 2012]

"I don't think anyone actually wants to become a parole officer." Walter is a parole officer who isn't happy with his job. One by one a new offender comes to him and he has to lay out the rules. During his recent sting of offenders he meets three very different personalities and does his best to try and help them all. He finds that helping them he starts to help himself. Going in I was not really looking forward to this that much. The preview made it look OK but I still thought it could be a little slow moving. This was the opposite. The humor was really funny but still a little quirky. Kevin Hart was great in this and he really stole the movie. There really isn't too much to this movie other then all four of the main people trying to straighten out their lives but this is worth seeing. This is the type of movie you can just put in and watch without really having to think about too much and every once in a while that is nice to do. Overall, a fun lighthearted comedy that is relaxing to watch. I give it a B.

Complete waste of time

[artistbydayvillainbynight · 1/10 · 17 January 2021]

Once again, I picked out the 2 star movie for the family to watch. Save yourself and your family from this horrific film. It's labeled a comedy yet there was not a single funny line.

Dismal and Unimaginative.

[kowulz · 1/10 · 19 February 2016]

I was appalled at how bad this movie was. Despite having a few fairly big names, all of the performances were catatonic and uninspired. I picked this up at Wal-mart and I am more concerned about the hour and a half of my life I will never get back. There is definitely a place on or near my ten worst movies list. Even the potential eye candy was lethargic and forced.

Kevin Hart was neutered. Simon Helberg played a caricature of a two dimensional thug. If he's worried about being remembered as Howard Walowitz, he should be glad if he is remembered as Howard Walowitz.

I couldn't tell if Ed Asner had had a stroke or if his character had dementia. Either way, it was a great loss.

Minor embarrassments turn into mediocre epiphanies.

Buy this movie today for someone that you really don't like.

Awful

[deimelcr01 · 1/10 · 21 July 2020]

What in the hell was with the transitions? This movie was terrible. The only thing it even had was character development. But the loose ends made it horrible!

great performances by Ed Asner and Kevin Hart

[mikechinea · 8/10 · 29 October 2012]

I think the reason this gem did not get the proper release is that it was marketed to a hip Kevin Hart audience and not the Ed Asner audience. Here you have something closer to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel with brilliant performances but the marketing people missed the mark. Kevin Hart's tragic character Kris performance was spot on, it had its comic moments but you felt the character's fallen from grace humiliation. So if you went in thinking you were going to get a laugh a minute from this comic genius you were disappointed. Only Ed Asner could have pulled off Artie, the nasty crotchety old buzzard career criminal and still be so endearing. Director Brian Jett got Oscar worthy performances out of these two and others in the cast. As an audience, do we have the time to sit and appreciate the complexities of Walter, played brilliantly by David Denman? He had to play straight man to a cast of faulted characters while dealing with his own short comings. Who did not fall in love with Darla? Gillian Jacobs was, well, beautiful as ever and you sensed her conniving character becoming real and not just putting on an act just to get what she wanted.

I know that with people in the cast like Ed Asner, Kevin Hart, Dov Davidoff, Garrett Morris, Jack Carter, Rance Howard you'd expect a laugh a minute but instead you end up watching a sweet moving movie about people in situations that you have to laugh to keep from crying. This was a tragic comedy doing a high wire act between tragedy and comedy. Brian Jett did a great job with 4 strong characters, each with their own character arc, their own issues and their own way to resolving them. This is a comedy but not for the MTV crowd.

Quirky fo' quirks sake

[bumpy-3 · 1/10 · 29 August 2012]

Let Go (2010) shoots for delightful. Unfortunately, it only actually hits somewhere around "let's light all copies on fire and do away with 'em". Quirky for the sake of being quirks, one only needs to be clued in by the movie's poster, one that looks all too much like the cover of a circa 2007 Urban Outfitters catalog.

In short, this thing is a wholly unsatisfying mess. If you crossed 'Little Miss Sunshine' with 'Juno' and rolled the combined goo in a chopped-up copy of 'Garden State', then forcefed the resulting paste to Kristen Schaal while Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg were chained up nearby, eyelids pinned back and forced to watch, you might have an interesting piece of cinematic art (or, if you ended up *really* lucky, marketable snuff film) that a future unmade sequel to 'Let's Go' would one day strive to be.

Baaaaad script

[FluffydaMovieslayer · 3/10 · 14 June 2021]

Actors did they best they could with such a terrible script ..

I wouldn't. I have a few big regrets in life and spending some of it watching this is one of them

[thekman-96382 · 1/10 · 17 September 2022]

OMG, it drags on for what feels like half a day while you wait for something to happen, anything. Not a comedy at all. Makes me think a lot less of Kevin Hart and he has done some horrible movies in the past.

If you've ever seen 'New World' with Collin Farrel, it is on par with the level of suicidal thoughts it inspires, not because of sad moments or having identified with any of the characters or their plights, but because there are vine videos that have had a greater, more intricate sotry of content.

I am hung over and couldn't be bothered to choose something else, why couldn't the building have burned down? I would have welcomed the toxic fumes with open lungs. There was a fruit fly in my house while I watched it, its choice of landing spot, its flight path, wondering which surfaces it vomited its stomach contents on; was all absolutely enthralling compared to this utter drivel.

One star is too generous, I would take away the outlines of the stars for this sweat stain of a movie. 'Let go' receives a rating of completely blank paper out of ten stars. The paper is smeared with a brownish, reddish, crusty mixture of body fluids and keeps you away from the sinks in a truck stop bathroom.

Ill-considered, mismanaged, middling

[I_Ailurophile · 2/10 · 1 August 2021]

I had high expectations based on the cast, but I'm afraid I find myself disappointed in what I see. 'Let go' is marketed as a comedy-slash-drama, yet it doesn't really make much of an impression at all. This is a movie whose various parts are like two bickering criminals whose disagreement allows their mark to slip away from them.

'Let go' wastes no time, quickly introducing the main characters in the middle of the opening credits. We meet charismatic, comely, conniving Darla (Gillian Jacobs!), and acerbic, irascible Artie (Ed Asner!). There's also desk jockey Dishman (David Denman), in the doldrums; and... Kris, played by Kevin Hart in an uncharacteristically subdued role.

Scarce instances of engaging comedy are outweighed by a more pervasive air of mild amusement. These are both broadly subsumed by a still more extensive mood that's instead pensive, or even sorrowful, and peeks at the criminal justice system that inspire distinct distrust. Except for the weak central link of parole officer Walter Dishman, there's no real sense of unity to the picture. This is more a disparate collection of portraits of ex-cons, and with each different focus the movie carries a slightly different feeling about it. But the core, even so, remains a largely dull, somewhat doleful hodgepodge.

'Let go' is a comedy less in the sense of humor, and more in the sense that it's not an abject tragedy. It would have been more properly labeled exclusively as a plain drama, an examination of these varied characters as they try - to varying degrees - to readjust to life after it's been upended. But writer-director Brian Jett's screenplay languishes in the liminal space between the marginal fun it wants to impart, and the character study it doesn't try very hard to be. It fully commits to neither, can't strike a balance - doesn't hit the substantial, meaningful story beats it could and should - and the result is just rather bland.

The film drifts along a bit aimlessly, with characters given complete backgrounds but little personality. I'm inclined to think those points of radiance the picture does possess have less to do with Jett, and more to do with the assembled cast. Jacobs is a beacon of light no matter the role, even when a feature is unworthy of her (as this is). Hart has greater skill as an actor than his usual cocksure posture portends. Asner carries more gravity and general value in his mere countenance than the entire rest of this flick could possibly aspire to. Supporting characters are mostly just annoying, if not altogether dispensable.

The characters herein do experience growth, but it comes along piecemeal, haphazardly, and unconvincingly. By the time the ending rolls around, the resolution to the constituent story threads isn't rewarding in the sense of being fulfilling - only gratifying, in that a film that has droned on seemingly endlessly has finally reached its conclusion. It turns out that the opening credits were the chief highlight of the movie.

I entered optimistic; I wanted to like this movie - I emphatically do not. It had potential; there were good ideas here - they were mostly wasted. I earnestly hope that there's an audience out there for 'Let go,' and there are viewers who find it impactful and enjoyable. I'm not one of them.

Even if you're a great fan of the cast, I find it difficult to recommend this.

That's was bad

[liamhutton1987 · 1/10 · 25 February 2021]

Really didn't enjoy that at all was just a bad movie

An Underrated Indie Gem

[isantistao · 9/10 · 24 January 2021]

This is such an underrated movie and I can't believe it hasn't gotten much better ratings. This is one of those profoundly great indie masterpieces that anyone who appreciates the art of film ought to love. It is about a few different stories that intertwine, each one is moving in its own way. The movie really makes you think, and feel. Just as film is supposed to. I highly recommend this movie.

You'll laugh at how unfunny it is

[senorcastro-252-761092 · 3/10 · 12 March 2022]

Literally the oddest film that is trying to pass as something deep. This is appealing to boring people with boring lives and who thinks a discontent parole officer is cinema gold. Wow, Kevin hart basically playing a broke version of himself snd Ed Asner was basically just released from idk Alcatraz after being arrested during the Great Depression or something. The reviews I'm seeing singing this film praise is crazy! It made sense when I realized these people enjoy the Big Bang Theory. Terrible tastes begets terrible taste.

Goes Nowhere

[jaylaird-89068 · 1/10 · 21 August 2021]

Horrible. Waiting 105mins for something to happen but it does not. Shame on you Kevin Hart. Not even the slightest bit funny. Boring tales that had alot of potential but went to nothing.

Such a great cast, wasted

[bindeezel · 2/10 · 8 December 2022]

Dull storyline with not enough effort put into the the writing/script. The cinematographer did their work to create some good scenes - specifically, many of these were shot to encode some sort of emotion but fell flat due to the lack of dialogue or wasted dialogue between dull characters. Such a great cast wasted on this film about letting go, yet many of them got odd happy endings.

While the stories intertwined, none of them were very good and I was left feeling unfulfilled (like most of the characters), but I didn't get that "ah-ha" moment I'm sure they intended me to feel. Watch something else, anything else...

Poorly written

[anastasiadarrah · 4/10 · 16 September 2022]

The writing is what killed this film. It's very cheesy and unimaginative. The dialogue is very unnatural. I also didn't love the way many of the scenes were shot, it makes it look cheaper. That said, the acting really tried to elevate this film. A few great people in this- particularly David Denman, Kevin Hart, and Elizabeth Olsen. I think costumes did a really decent job of setting up the characters as well. Overall, I related wanted to like this movie and at times I was able to embrace the cheese-factor, but mostly it just made me sad that talented people and money went into making this script.

Go See Let Go!

[bwfurness · 10/10 · 16 January 2013]

I first saw this film at the Virginia Film Festival. I have since bought the DVD for myself and others. I love this movie! Especially the following: 1. the animated title sequence and scene transitions 2. the interesting use of color – particularly red 3. the surprisingly good performances by comedic actors from The Office, Community, and The Big Bang Theory 4. the recurring thread of the Santa Monica Pier 5. the use and placement of the Other Lives song "Black Tables" I am old enough to remember Ed Asner from television. It was nice seeing him again on the big screen. I also thoroughly enjoyed the performances of Kevin Hart, David Denman, and Gillian Jacobs. I believe this is the first effort by writer / director Brian Jett. I truly hope it is not his last. Definitely worth watching!

DADDY, IS THAT YOU?

[nogodnomasters · 10/10 · 11 August 2018]

Walter Dishman (David Denman) is a parole officer who is in life's rut. He is straight and wears sweaters like Rick Santorum and is just as boring. His character is contrasted by a gaggle of colorful characters which include the supporting minor roles.

He has three parolees whose lives we follow.

Darla (Gillian Jacobs) She is a pretty blond who is amoral, manipulative, and has her own jazz swagger music. She went to jail for selling her engagement ring on E-Bay. As it turns out her boyfriend stole it.

Artie Satz (Edward Asner) He has a long rap sheet for armed robbery. He is a curmudgeon's curmudgeon. He doesn't need anyone. He has "survived two world wars, the Great Depression and that Coke crap they tried to pull in the eighties."

Kris Styles (Kevin Hart). He is a doctor who was convicted of bilking insurance companies. He can no longer practice and is wealthy enough not to work. The kicker is that work is part of his parole so he finds himself in blue collar jobs that don't suit him. He has ex-wife emotional baggage.

The film concentrates on creating memorable characters down to the Goth at the coffee shop to the over bubbly career counselor. The film is humorous and well done. This would make for a decent date night film, or even a film on family night for the older kids.

Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.

Poor Walter...

[hannah-13696 · 9/10 · 15 July 2020]

Pitiful & bored, he finds very interesting eccentric Paroles, especially one 'blonde bombshell' sexy woman who tempts him.... What will he do???

It learns you a lesson

[anskastu · 8/10 · 23 June 2022]

This movie is amazing, the movie learn you that you should enjoy life and that you should always saty loyal to the ones that you love. It was also a great idea to combine the three stories in this movie. The only thing that I misssed is the "comedy". There was some sort of comedy sometimes but not much. I would reccomend this movie of course, but don't expect to much comedy. 🙌