Has Kevin Hart been crowned the king of comedy too soon?

In the modern black comedy pantheon there is Richard Pryor first, then came Eddie Murphy -- who both stole from Pryor and surpassed him in terms of range and popularity.

The heir to Murphy's throne has not been as clear. Chris Rock certainly occupied it in the world of stand up but his film work, save for his recent resurgent role as the writer-director-star of Top Five, has never been up to par with his talent.

Dave Chappelle had the potential to capture the comedy zeitgeist but he has chosen to stay under the radar. Into the void stepped Kevin Hart, who despite a very devoted following, has never really bowled me over.

Don't get me wrong, when I see him in interviews and occasionally catch his stand up, I think he's a funny, talented guy. I just don't think he is the transcendent comedy star that his predecessors Pryor and Murphy were.

Still, he seems to be one of the hottest performers at the movies right now. Almost every month there is a new Hart vehicle in theaters. Yet not a single one of them looked appealing or funny to me. It seems like most if not all of his movies are a succession of short guy put downs met by a panicked or angry meltdown from Hart,

It seemed like he deserved a better movie. When I first saw the trailers for Get Hard, I was excited. I thought Hart looked like he was stepping up his game by starring alongside the reigning MVP of big screen comedy, Will Ferrell. Trading Places comparisons were inevitable, but I thought the premise of faux tough guy training a pompous snob for prison could be funny.

Eddie Murphy in Raw

Now that the reviews are in, my hopes for this film and for Hart's career in the short term, are fading.

According to widespread critical consensus, the film relies on tired gay panic humor and even more problematic racial stereotyping. Ferrell's movies have always had a field day thumbing their nose at political correctness but apparently this film is more offensive than outrageous -- and that's really disappointing.

I can't shake the feeling that Hollywood is so desperate to make Hart the "new Eddie Murphy" that they aren't letting it happen organically and his movies aren't getting better -- if anything they appear to be getting worse.

Even if this movie is the misstep it's being called I'm not ready to throw in the towel on Ferrell. He just may be my favorite comedy star working in Hollywood right now and he's made consistently hilarious movies for the last 12 years. Still, it's disappointing that at this stage of his career he's apparently regressing with this kind of lowest common denominator fare.

Of course I haven't seen the movie yet, and perhaps all the early reviews are way off base. I don't know. I rarely if ever see movies with terrible reviews because I almost always end up agreeing with the critics.

So it may be a while yet before I hop aboard the Kevin Hart bandwagon.