Hall Pass (2011)

This movie is frankly disgusting. And not in a good way. I mean the kind of disgusting where you just feel dirty after watching a movie like this and you want to take a shower, and then shower again just to be safe. Hall Pass is everything I hate in studio comedies, cranked to 11. Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis play two pals who are bored with their lives married to Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate respectively. When the wives notice that their husbands are getting way too horny, they decide to give them a hall pass (where Wilson and Sudeikis get sleep with as many women as they want and fear no repercussions) for a week. So Wilson and Sudeikis get some other friends to paint the town red and get laid. The wives decide they want to do this too, and I assume you know what's next. First of all, the premise is downright unpleasant and despicable, and the film's attempt at addressing America's attitude towards marriage and adultery is so half-hearted and misguided that I honestly don't know what they're trying to teach. The characters (including the wives and the random people our heroes encounter the whole movie) are too obnoxious and unlikable to care about. I know Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis can act, so why won't they pick movies that let them? Everyone else in the cast try their best with what they have, and it's not very much. The comedy in this film consists of this: Scatological slapstick, dick jokes and random references to movies we could be watching instead of this one. Not necessarily in that order. Movies like Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary are classics because the humor in each broke barriers and challenged people's taste. Sadly, the Farrelly Brothers' brand of humor is not funny, shocking or interesting anymore. After the umpteenth time, it gets tiresome. It's clear that the Farrelly Brothers are refusing to grow up even though their audience has.

Depressing how useless, low movies like this still get made. The Farrelly Bros and entire cast are clearly just milking the Hollywood cash cow. Pathetic attempt at comedy with no redeeming characters. The best line in the whole film is where one of the wives says 'this is why the terrorists hate us'. A truly poor poor fim.

I laughed more than I thought I would at this movie, and I enjoyed all the performances. So it exceeded my expectations. It was outrageous enough that I would be willing to watch it again. I liked Christina Applegate and Jenna Elfman in their roles as the exasperated wives. I liked the fact that this movie addresses the male ideal that they could be getting all kinds of young women if they weren't married. Above average.

This review may contain SPOILERS. After reading the blurb on the back of the DVD cover, I began to suspect that this film was not going to be so obviously about two married men given liberty for a week, but a subversive attack on women. As the film progressed I began to think that my suspicions were right.Two married men, Rick (Owen Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis) long for the freedom of their youth. Their wives, Maggie (Jenna Fischer) and Grace (Christina Applegate) reluctantly agree. As the film progresses though, the whole premise is turned on its head. Rick and Fred just cannot be unfaithful to their wives, Rick turns down a near naked Leigh (Nicky Whelan) while Fred even fakes having sex. The women though are a different kettle of fish. From the wives to the doctor to female relatives and even the young babysitter, the women are portrayed as rampant tarts who just cannot get enough. Hollywood really hates women doesn't it? This is a comedy though, so that's all right isn't it? Grace even crashes her car and ends up in hospital after realising what she had done. It must have been a hoot writing that one.I believe it was Oscar Wilde (correct me if I'm wrong) who said something along the lines of, "Women don't know the danger they are in until it's too late." Perhaps it should be rewritten as, "Women don't know how much they are hated until it's too late." If ever there was a misogynistic movie, then this has to be it.