Hall Pass (2011– 105 mins) O. Wilson, J, Sudeikis, J. Fischer, C. Applegate

There are slapstick comedies which you want to watch a ton, the ones like “Old School” which are classic, have a great cast, you quote them all the time, and they help the time pass quick and easy. They are the ones you call “classics”. Then there are the ones where they are funny, but they never reach that level of “classic”. All potential and not as much follow through. Now, look at the cast, just the 4 main pieces of the cast I listed above… go ahead look.. I’ll wait. Now say to yourself, “Self, with a cast like that, how can this movie be in any way, a LET DOWN?” Yep, sorry to say it just is.

The plot is simple enough. Two suburbanite couples, stuck in the riggers of married life decide to give the husbands a “hall pass”. Basically a vacation from married life for a week to get their act together and sew those wild oats that might have them resenting their life or wives. This is where we get all those funny lines we see in the trailers. The ones with Sudeikis and Wilson (and their croonies) out at bars making fools of themselves with lame pick up lines and generally acting like inept nozzles. As we all know with movies like this it’s just a means to the typical predictable end that the guys and girls all end up realizing what they had is the real thing they want and not the teenage angst trapped within them. It’s all just an excuse to set up the comedy in the middle. Unfortunately the directors don’t realize that the real humor is not seeing the two guys be inept. It’s when they are rapping off each other and just doing the self deprecating humor in giving each other crap. They do a great job of playing off each other on a variety of subjects and it’s the better part of the movie. Not with lame set ups and bar humor but them making fun of random stuff in both normal and grotesque ways.

It’s both a movie that left me wanting more out of the actors and wanting it to end 10-15 mins earlier then it did. I also got the feeling that someone else might be a bit better at the main part the Owen Wilson. Don’t get me wrong I love the guy as an actor and comedian but he just seems not right for that middle age dad part. I just didn’t buy him. Sudeikis was awesome and believable but something just seems off about Wilson’s role. As with a lot of comedies, a good watch for the 1st time and prolly would enjoy it on cable but not one of those classics Iwill run out and watch on a regular basis.

Verdict–> Simply it’s pretty funny. Plenty of good laughs but nothing strung together to make a great movie. The Farrelly’s and their fans are constantly looking for the next “Dumb and Dumber” but we keep on ending up lately with “Shallow Hal”. Go ahead and grab it today at the red box b/c there isn’t a whole lot of awesome comedies, but you will notice that there is just something missing from it all. That step just below a killer classic comedy. Good but not quite great.

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