Hall Pass is the latest "boys never grow up" comedy to come out of the Ferrelly Brothers. Being the creative minds behind Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary, one can expect a riotous situational comedy with a dash of lewd exposure all while managing to keep a heartwarming undertone that makes it all worth it. Unfortunately, Hall Pass keeps the lewd with a dash of comical instances of brilliance while managing to keep the audience wondering when the movie will finally just... stop playing.
Rick (Owen Wilson, the blonde one who's not Luke Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis of SNL fame) are best buds happily married to wonderful women Maggie (Jenna Fischer of The Office) and Grace (Christina Applegate of Anchorman, Married with Children). But things have gotten a little stale in the bedroom and the guys are helpless but to gawk at all the young "talent" that surrounds them. Darn it, if only they weren't married! The wives take note of this behavior and after a lengthy dialogue with a minor character literally detailing the title of the film, they pave the way for a wild week of orgies and freedom by issuing their husbands a "hall pass" a.k.a. a week free from marriage in which they can sow their wild oats. The boys are instantly excited and embrace the idea without any concern for how bad things must be in their marriage to have brought their wives to this point, but never mind. Free sex! Except they find that it isn't as easy as they remember to meet women leading to failed attempt after attempt to not only fulfill their fantasies, but to even function without the guidance of their wives. Reminiscent of moving out of the house for the first time and instead of mom's meatloaf, you're eating Cup o' Noodles for 3 weeks straight. The ladies, on the other hand, go Maggie's father's summer home for the week and party with a visiting Minor League baseball team and play volley ball and shotgun beer and are flirted with constantly and... well, you get the point.
Ultimately, the film slumps along from one scene to the next, segmented together in a shrewd manner. The film's crippling weakness isn't that a majority of the jokes are asinine for even a Farrelly Brother film or that the plot is overly contrived but that the characters we're meant to invest in just aren't interesting or agreeable or worth a $10 admission. Being a fan of Wilson and especially of Sudeikis, the characters they played were severely underwritten for their talents. They didn't seem to capture the bumbling 40-year-old thinking he could still be a 20-year-old effect and just came across as bumbling 40-year- olds pretending to be 60-year-olds thinking they could be 20-year-olds. Fischer and Applegate were also underwritten and thus made it hard to really invest in their characters as well.
While there are a few memorable moments involving a hipster troll working at a coffee shop and Stephen Merchant being Stephen Merchant for 5 minutes, Hall Pass just does not deserve to be excused from its poor execution.
1.5 Hawaiian shirts out of 5
-MovieFloss.com
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