Stories about middle-aged men attempting to reconnect with their youthful glory days ring a little bit hollow, which might explain why Hall Pass’s attempts at comedy are met with silence. While the Farrelly Brothers are prone to making comedies with truly absurd or dark slants, they usually manage to create a consistently funny film, even if it’s a bit gross at times. Dumb & Dumber, Kingpin, There’s Something About Mary, and Me, Myself and Irene represent different sides of their collective sense of humor but Hall Pass feels like an attempt to cash in on the frat boy humor trend but without scoring even the meager helping of laughs that genre typically deals out.
Rick (Owen Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis) are languishing in the routines of suburbia which have interfered with their sex lives by depriving them of the time they’d spend making love to their wives (Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate, respectively) and replacing it with indulging rich neighbors and carting the kids between school, sports, and wherever. After Rick and Fred embarrass their wives with public exploits, they each receive a Hall Pass, a week-long chance to eat, drink and philander as if they were single men again as their wives wait it out in Cape Cod. The guys gradually work up the courage to act like frat boys again and each has the opportunity to complete the unwritten contract of the Hall Pass. Meanwhile, their wives discover romance in their own week off.
The casting for Hall Pass might make it one of the most frustrating failures in the comedy genre in a while. Casting Owen Wilson as the every-guy is a no-brainer casting move and Jason Sudeikis plays aged frat boy well, but neither can exhibit the level of weariness necessary to make them seem like genuine victims of suburbia fatigue. Owen Wilson’s particular brand of comic delivery relies on him attempting to act smooth only to stumble and then talk in long bursts, his eyes wide open, as he struggles to regain footing in the conversation. Hall Pass wasn’t written to accommodate that style and consequently, no matter how funny Owen Wilson might be, he never fits the role. By contrast, Jason Sudeikis does fit, but then you have to deal with the film’s overarching issue: the jokes just aren’t funny because you never feel these two are deserving of a Hall Pass in the first place.
Their wives, played by the beautiful and very funny women Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate, are rewarding them for making asses of themselves in public with a week to skip work, goof off and hit on women. Does that make sense to anyone? The leaps of logic they take to justify to themselves that it’s actually a cleverly designed punishment never holds up, and so their later realization that it was actually them granting themselves a vacation just feels weak and contrived. The film would have been much better suited by keeping Fischer and Applegate in the main story. Jenna Fischer proved herself a strong comic force in The Office and Blades of Glory and Christina Applegate did the same in Anchorman, almost to the point where it would be easy to make the argument that they have superior comic chops than either of the male leads.
In fact, the funniest sequence to come out of the film is a little clip that runs during the credits with Stephen Merchant because it actually fits him as a comedian.
The film never necessitates HD, though the presentation is quite good. Audio and video have plenty of depth, but considering how subpar the film is, it doesn’t do much to make the purchase worthwhile.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The disc is a combo pack and thus includes the film on Blu-ray, DVD and as a digital copy in addition to featuring both the theatrical and a 6-minute extended version. Neither the 6-minutes of additional content nor the deleted scene in the extras do anything to make it a better feature. Ultimately, the gag reel offers more laughs than the film itself, thanks in large part to more screen time from Applegate, Fischer, and Merchant.
"Hall Pass" is on sale June 14, 2011 and is rated R. Comedy. Directed by Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly. Written by Pete Jones & Peter Farrelly & Kevin Barnett & Bobby Farrelly. Starring Christina Applegate, Jason Sudeikis, Jenna Fischer, Owen Wilson.
