Hall Pass (Review)

The Farrelly Brothers rose to prominence in the 90s by deliberately railing against PC sensibilities in the name of comedy.

They poked fun at the handicapped (There’s something about Mary), showed animals being abused (Me, Myself and Irene – a cow is beaten extensively and refused to die, a chicken is used with such force that death may have been a relief), obesity (Shallow Hal), more handicap issues (Stuck on You) and the good old fashioned punchlines the Amish (Kingpin).

Throw in some profanity and a few dick and fluid jokes and you’ve got yourself a high grossing comedy son.

But the 90s ticked over into the 2000s and the PC regime got so powerful that now we can’t laugh at that stuff anymore – even if it’s funny. So the last decade have seen the Farrelly’s lose their ‘edge. Sure the dick and fluid jokes remain, and you can curse and flash a tittie for effect, but all that only goes so far… and Hall Pass is a prime example.

Rick (Owen Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis) are not handicapped, they aren’t unfortunate, they aren’t even abnormal. They both hold good white collar jobs, have loving wives – Maggie (Jenna Fisher) and Grace (Christina Applegate). Rick is a good father to two great kids.

The guy’s only ‘crime’ is being in their early 40s and feeling perhaps that youth has passed them by. Life has become shameful alone moments and a series of failed marital conquests.

After not one. Not Two. But THREE! Wacky coincidences that lead to being overheard or (more pathetically) ‘over-seen’, cue up the laugh track when the wives decide that they have had enough of the ogling and faux “If I only had the chance” misguided machismo and give their husbands the titular ‘week off from marriage’ with zero strings attached and no repercussions.

This leads to an hour or so of the standard ‘guys trying to get laid in zany ways’ situations with the Farrelly staples of fluids, genitals and potty talk. The guys go to the gym, clubbing and for a ‘massage’ and are embarrassed and publicly humiliated at every turn.

Hall Pass is one of those films where there are 5 or 6 primary characters, and for the week in question it seems that every time Rick or Fred do something silly or potentially embarrassing – which being in a Farrelly film means every seven minutes or so – those same characters are there just in time to witness it and be suitably appalled.

Meanwhile the wives have departed for the week to give the guys their space, but they aren’t spending the week doing crosswords and drinking tea…

I laughed out loud twice during Hall Pass, once at the delivery of the word “Clones” (you’ll have to watch the film for the context) and once when a peripheral character played by Stephen Merchant gets his own fantasy sequence during the credits.

That’s not to say they didn’t try to wring every single chuckle from the premise, it’s just most of them were contrived or didn’t work so well. The problem is aside from a seedy older ‘pick-up svengali’ that the guys consult later in the film most of the characters are depressingly one note or worse – just nice.

When you take out the middle ground of being able to extract easy jokes from easy targets the Farrelly’s only have so much room to move. What is left is a film that is half poop and sex jokes and half middle aged moraling and posturing. That doesn’t average out to a good film, merely some ‘smut for chuckles’ sake’ in between boring bits.

Oh, and having two guys married to gorgeous 30 something women – who also treat them well – makes it hard (and baffling) for the audience to hope that they head out and tag everything that moves for a week.

Final Rating – 6 / 10. Hall Pass is supposed to be hilarious because it has middle aged guys running around like horny teenagers, but this stuff is just funnier and more guilt free when it is left to the 20 something idiots.

About OGR

While I try to throw a joke or two into proceedings when I can all of the opinions presented in my reviews are genuine. I don't expect that all will agree with my thoughts at all times nor would it be any fun if you did, so don't be shy in telling me where you think I went wrong... and hopefully if you think I got it right for once. Don't be shy, half the fun is in the conversation after the movie.
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