Night School is one of those movies bound to make it to cable television, stuck between Will Ferrell comedies on the Sundays of holiday weekends.

But for a leading man like Kevin Hart, it’s a glowing example of the type of film that banks on chemistry hiding a clunky script.

Kevin Hart has been making me laugh for more than a decade, and I’d gladly shell out money for his schtick, live or onscreen.

But this pairing with Tiffany Haddish, who has proved grating post-Girls Trip, doesn’t do him any favours.

The truth is Haddish isn’t nearly as annoying and loudmouthed here as she has been, but these two performers — despite their talents — just aren’t well paired. And it shows.

The entertainment instead comes from background characters, with solid supporting actors like Rob Riggle, Romany Falco, Ben Schwartz, Keith David and especially Mary Lynn Rajskub doing the lifting together.

It’s a paint-by-numbers flick about a guy who goes back to get his GED so he can move forward with his life and impress his fiancee.

I’ve seen a movie about a grown man-child going back to school. It was called Billy Madison, and it was an Adam Sandler vehicle in 1995. Silly as it was, I liked that variation better.

2/5 Stars