aka, people sure do love kitten videos, aka, keeping it real by keeping it...unreal. A suburban dad (Keegan-Michael Key) and his slacker friend (Jordan Peele) go undercover as gangsters in an effort to recover the slacker’s new kitten. (It seeks him out after escaping a slo-mo drug massacre in a church, presumably because it can sense his heartbreak over a recent breakup.) And what do you know, a little street does ‘em both some good: Dad learns to unwind and assert, and slacker finds drive and purpose. Indeed, the ease with which they adopt their new identities as Sharktank and Tectonic is almost enough to make you wonder if the other stuff — the boring, nonviolent stuff — wasn’t the real put-on. It’d sure help to explain why the pair’s horror when shit gets real seems so fake, and why they’re so good at being badass. The unfortunate result, however, is the devolution from bold-ish black-on-black comedy to plain old action-comedy. There’s pleasure in the easy rapport between the leads, but as events take their course, it’s a good thing that cat is cute. Directed by Peter Atencio. (2016) — Matthew Lickona
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