Hall Pass

Starring: Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate, Richard Jenkins, Nicky Whelan, Stephen Mercant,
Directed by: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Romance
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Two friends (Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis) hit the town to recapture the glory of their single days, when their wives (Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate) give them a Hall Pass- a week off from marriage.

Review:

Tim: I still expected more from the Farrelly Brothers. Even though it's been a long, long time since they came out with a legitimately funny movie. They are still talented directors, and I expected them to give us a funnier movie. I admit that all the trailers of Hall Pass made the movie look completely stupid and weak, but I still maintained at least a little faith. Unfortunately, sometimes the cover does reveal the quality of the book.

The Hall Pass isn't exactly a brilliant concept, nor is it one that's going to join the popular cultural lexicon. Mostly because the idea is pretty stupid and would never work in real life. The idea is that the two wives in the film give their husbands a week off from marriage- anything goes, no expectations or commitments. The thinking behind this is that the guys are dumb and still living in the past- that they think they're cooler and more attractive to women than they really are. The guys will blow off some steam, and realize at the end of the week that they really love their wives. I suppose it kind of makes sense in some perverted Hollywood logic, but the movie itself is pretty stupid already.

The cast is fine, but I really believe they were greatly hampered by the script. No one in the cast was really great. Owen Wilson was fine in the lead role, but he didn't have a whole lot of really, really funny moments. I suppose he's not bad, but I was not impressed with him at all. Jason Sudeikis is still not my favorite actor, but he probably had a few more humorous moments than Wilson. He definitely gets to play up his role a bit (Wilson is more of the straight man here) and get some of the funnier jokes. Still, Sudeikis is not great.

Jenna Fischer is an actress I really like, but didn't think she was great here. Part of the problem is her acting. I felt like she was doing television acting in a Hollywood movie. I never really believed her character and she didn't convince me. This is partially her acting, but the script also hurts as well. Christina Applegate was a bit better, but nothing special, either. I enjoyed Richard Jenkins in a very out-of-character role, although ultimately, his character is pretty weak as well. I do have to admit I was impressed with Nicky Whelan, who was given the "hot" girl role, but actually brought some intelligent and heart to the part.

The movie unfolds pretty much as you would expect. With the Farrellys, you know there will be at least one disgusting, over-the-top moment (it happens here with the hilarious and nasty sneezing scene). Unfortunately, the movie overall felt like it had far too many unfunny moments. So much of the movie felt like it featured jokes we've seen over and over again, without any attempt to even pretend they were fresh or original. One of the worst offenders was when Richard Jenkins shows that a mediocre girl looks more beautiful when she surrounds herself with ugly girls. That's cutting edge comedy right there! Too much of the movie feels like we've been there and done that already.

I certainly wish I could have liked Hall Pass. The movie had a few humorous moments, but most didn't connect with the audience at all. The cast was weak and there wasn't enough character development to make us actually care about anyone involved in the film. This wasn't a fun movie to watch. I'll give you an example- I was watching the movie for what seemed like forever. It felt like the movie was starting to wrap up- I guessed it had been about 90 minutes, with 10-15 minutes left. When I checked, we had just crossed the 65 minute mark, and still had about 40 minutes left. I could not believe it. The movie just dragged on and on. This was a major miss by the Farrellys.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 5



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