The House

Starring: Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Jason Mantzoukas, Ryan Simpkins, Nick Kroll, Allison Tolman, Jeremy Renner, Alexandra Daddario, Randall Park
Directed by: Andrew Jay Cohen
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
2017

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: To pay for their daughter's college, a married couple (Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler) operate an illegal casino in their friend's (Jason Mantzoukas) house.

Review:

Tim: The House might be a stupid comedy, but it's at least a decent movie. It's actually one of the better Will Ferrell movies I've seen in a while (which is sad for Ferrell, but I'm trying to be positive here). This is one of those comedies that throws everything up on the screen, hoping more things stick than don't. That's not quite the case here, but the movie does have its moments.

I was fine with the premise of the film. A married couple opens an illegal casino to pay for their daughter's college education. What starts as an somewhat positive goal (the approach is obviously misguided) soon spirals out of control in ways that you would expect. The idea is ridiculous, but there's just enough truth in it for us to go along with the premise. As intended, it does create quite a few comedic situations.

Ferrell is decent in the lead role. It's a far cry from his funniest roles, but his transformation into "The Butcher" is a fun one. He does have some strong scenes and creates a number of laughs. I'm not a fan of Amy Poehler, but I thought this was one of her better roles. She was less annoying than I usually find her. Her performance wasn't good enough to make me change my mind about her, but I didn't have any major complaints. I loved seeing Jason Mantzoukas in this role. He's such an incredible supporting character. I'd be so over him in a lead role, but in small doses, he's truly fantastic. I had a lot of fun watching him here and he really made the movie better. Nick Kroll had such a one-dimensional character. He was saddled with a caricature, not a real human being. His performance didn't help- it was too outlandish and not grounded enough. I didn't care for his character or his portrayal of him. It was fun seeing Jeremy Renner, but the role was a throwaway one. It was disappointing how pointless his presence was. Still, Ferrell, Poehler, and Mantzoukas were a strong enough trio to help this movie significantly.

The film starts out fine, setting up the characters and the scenarios that will play out throughout the rest of the film. I thought the beginning worked. It's also fun to see the casino get spun up, the early challenges, and then to see things finally pick up. I enjoyed seeing how that unexpected level of success changed the characters. That all worked. It's pretty obvious where the movie is heading, but the last third of the movie was maybe the hardest to believe. Instead of really hitting the right notes with the mobsters and the police, the story kind of falls apart. It creates a few humorous moments, but it's not nearly as effective as it needed to be. And, while the movie has several good laughs, far too many jokes fall flat. The movie isn't continually entertaining. It's hard to take anything seriously and the jokes were only average. The film was really missing an unforgettably hilarious sequence. Luckily, the film is rather short at 1 hour, 28 minutes- a length that felt appropriate.

The House is a decent comedy. It was actually slightly better than I anticipated. However, everyone involved in this movie have made far better comedies than this one. You might not have a problem sitting through it, but this is too forgettable, too unfunny to be a film many people will watch more than once. This might have been a decent comedy, but it's far too generic.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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