Hall Pass Gets Lost

For a movie marketed as a raunchy comedy, to be so painfully unfunny is a feat all itself, not what the creators intended. "Hall Pass" achieves this from the moment the title of the movie leaves the mouths of the characters, and the whole thing tumbles downhill from there. Predictable, soulless and boring are three things directors do not want in an adult comedy, but it was slathered all over this Farrelly Brothers film.

"Hall Pass," starring Owen Wilson ("Wedding Crashers", "Bottle Rocket"), centers around a married man named Rick, whose wife gives him a hall pass for a week. This hall pass grants him the chance to be as sleazy as he wants to be in hopes to get his roaming eyes back on his wife, played by Jenna Fischer ("The Office"). Rick, along with his buddy Fred (Jason Sudeikis of "SNL"),  and a few of their other pals go out on the town in hopes of scoring a few points before heading back to their women.

Terrible concept aside, the film suffers from poor set-ups and unfunny payoffs. It seems as though the Farrelly Brothers have run out of jokes, leaving all their gold in movies such as "Dumb & Dumber", "Me, Myself & Irene" and "There's Something About Mary." Judging by their previous body of work, one would expect the movie to push the limits of sensibility and taste with hilarious results. This time, however, expectations are not met with hilarity, but rather disappointment and crushed hopes of what could have been. The crude humor cannot make it past the slight smirk, and the recurring jokes force cringes instead of laughs.
The wives are more interesting than the husbands in this story since Wilson's character showed no real intentions of getting with anyone. When the wives are hit with temptation, their story is far more interesting but simply does not get enough screen time. Sudeikis proved he is nowhere near ready to co-star in a comedy, as he is only able to deliver one half-funny joke involving a chloroform napkin.

Wilson also makes audiences wonder if he is able to act outside of a Wes Anderson ("The Royal Tenebaums", "Rushmore", "Fantastic Mr. Fox") film at all. It would appear that he cannot, as his character feels extremely one-dimensional and seemed as though any other actor could have easily filled his shoes.  The characters Brent, played by Derek Waters, and Coakley (Richard Jenkins), the tanned out man who can be spotted telling the guys how to spot a not-so-hot chick, are the only characters that bring a slight smile and laugh to the theatre. This is due to their outlandish tendencies, which almost reminded viewers of the Farrelly's old ways.

All in all, the Farrellys need to sit down and take a long look at the drawing board to try and figure out why their films have become so lackluster. Gone are the days of explosive diarrhea, public indecency and questionable hair gel. Now the days are filled with barely funny characters, nudity for the sake of nudity and substance jokes which have been done over a thousand times in the past three years. The film falls short on every conceivable level by which one can measure a comedy.

 "Hall Pass" receives a 2 out of 10.

[Read on PUC site: Here]