Hall Pass (2011)

Wonder if my wife will let me have one of these.

Owen Wilson stars as a married man whose spouse (Jenna Fischer) grants him the right — for just one week — to pursue as many extramarital affairs as he can. His best buddy (Jason Sudeikis) receives an identical “hall pass” from his wife (Christina Applegate), and off the guys go. The hubbies soon discover, however, that picking up girls isn’t as easy as they recall, while their better halves embark on their own erotic adventures.

The Farrelly Brothers have a lot of films under their belts, but the problem is they haven’t really had a good one in awhile. With this, I think they kind of break that slump.

I wouldn’t say it’s a return-to-form for these guys, but they do have some laughs here that actually work. There are the usual raunchy jokes that I have come to expect from these two, and the zany psychical humor as well, but I was very surprised that there are about two poop jokes here, and I actually laughed at them. I laughed a lot more than I expected during this film, but those poop jokes, somehow got me, and I must say bravo to The Farrely’s on that one.

Though the film is funny I just wish it had what I was expecting, due to the genius idea of the plot. It’s a great idea for a film, but the plot just seems a bit too stale and episodic at points, and I was disappointed because I knew where this film could have definitely gone to be as funny. There’s also an underlying sweetness to it, but I couldn’t really buy that all too well. I wanted to see some sexy time, more guy talks, and just more humor. The plot starts to get a little cheesy by the last act, and we see where it starts to go, and I must say I was highly disappointed.

Owen Wilson is good for this role as Rick because he uses that toolish guy shtick he always has, to his advantage. I like Wilson in a lot of stuff that he does, and it was good to see him head-lining a comedy that was actually funny. Jason Sudeikis of SNL fame is pretty funny here as Fred, and although I don’t think he was the perfect fit for this role. But still, since this is his first starring role in a comedy, I have a feeling he’ll find a good role. Richard Jenkins also pops up in a hilarious side role as the pimp daddy, Coakley. Jenkins is good in almost everything he does, and this right here is no different.

However, the main problem I had with this film was probably the wives here played by Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate. Seeing that this is indeed a Farrelly Brothers film, the women in this film may be two-dimensional characters, but here it’s a huge distraction from the humor in this film. Whenever they would just shoot over to this story-line, all the humor that the main premise had going for it, just gets lost because these chicks really are such a drag and kind of stupid. If you don’t want your hubbies being horny all the time, give them some love, don’t let them get it from somebody else! Probably because I’m a dude is the reason why I’m saying this but the idea is cool, I just wish these chicks weren’t so stupid about it. Also, Joy Behar is in here?!? Surprisingly she’s not that annoying.

Consensus: The laughs aren’t non-stop like you would expect from an idea like this, and the sub-plot is terribly boring, but the cast does a good job with this script, and the jokes did somehow have me laughing, which makes Hall Pass a nice return for The Farrelly Brothers.

5.5/10=Rental!!