Hall Pass
2/4
poster

Details & Information from IMDB

Genre Comedy, Romance
Year 2011
Duration 105 min
Rating 5.9 out of 10
Description: "One week. No rules."

Rick and Fred, two husbands who are having difficulty in their marriages, are given a Hall Pass by their wives: for one week, they can do whatever they want.
Comments: I remember that there was a time in which I was enthusiastic to see the phrase "A new movie from co-directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly!", but that was 10 years ago. The Farrelly bros. made four brilliant comedies in a row (Dumb and Dumber; Kingpin; There's Something About Mary; and Me, Myself and Irene), and back in that time, many people (including me) considered them as the kings of the modern cinematographic comedy. However, it seems that the time diluted the sense of humor they showed in those four movies, or maybe, the commercial success impulsed them to "evolute" to a less coarse and more emotional style (which would eventually be usurped by director Judd Apatow and his imitators). Anyway, I found the films they made after Me, Myself and Irene to be insipid comedies with trite scatological humor and cloying emotions. Now, Hall Pass is another mediocre comedy in their filmography, but I found it to be much better than their two previous films (Fever Pitch -2005- and The Heartbreak Kid -2007-).The screenplay from Hall Pass is too predictable and a bit weak, but that is partially redeemed by some good moments of reflexive comedy. On the other side of the coin, we also have too many apparatus scenes of slapstick and vulgarity which feel too forced. Something which was done well by the Farrelly bros. in Hall Pass was filling some supporting roles with exaggerated characters which satirize very particular strata from North American society. I have to say that the absurd version of the perfect suburban family led by the characters Ed and Britney made me to have some laughs, something which is also a merit of the competent performances from Rob Moran and Lauren Bowles; and I also liked the character of the classic old-young man, which is well interpreted by Richard Jenkins.I think it would have been more interesting to see an interpretation of the story told by Hall Pass made with the style of films like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice or An Unmarried Woman, but well, I guess that the political correction has became more important for the Farrelly bros. than the narrative irreverence, so we can expect in here the trite moral lessons, various illogical jokes and forced comic rudeness which already characterize the work from these filmmakers. At least, Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis managed to take the maximum advantage out of the mediocre screenplay by bringing good performances, something which also applies to Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate as their characters' wives. In summary, I did not like Hall Pass very much, but at least it did not bore me and it occasionally made me laugh, something which makes it worthy of a slight recommendation.