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Hall Pass (1/10)

by Tony Medley

Run time 108 minutes.

Not for children.

This thing had more than three strikes against it within the first five minutes.

Written & directed by the Farrelly Brothers: Strike 1.

Owen Wilson’s four year old son refers to his mother’s “fat ass.” Strike 2.

Joy Behar appears in the film: Strike 3.

If your game allows more than three strikes, there’s more.

A man defecates in a golf sand trap and we see him squatting with his read end naked and the fecal material beneath him.

A husband masturbates in a car because his wife is asleep.

The movie contains full frontal male nudity and exacerbates a racial stereotype, so that might count as two more strikes taken together.

The Farrellys cast a bunch of guys as lifelong buddies who have nothing in common but a SAG card. These guys would be misfits if paired with guys from a beer commercial.

The idea is that just because the two guys, Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikiss, look at women, their wives are offended. Their old woman advisor, Behar, (she’s just as goofy in the movie as she is in real life) suggests they give their husbands a “hall pass” which is a defined as a pass from the fidelities of marriage for a week, and let them do whatever they want.

If this film had just been tasteless, it might have been relatively unremarkable, but it didn’t even reach that dubious pinnacle.

The Farrellys have long confused raunch with comedy. Raunch is not funny. It’s boorish and insults the audience, who is forced to sit and endure it.

I’m giving up on Owen Wilson. Even though he goes from one bad movie to another, I keep hoping he’ll wise up and utilize his talent in something of quality. Alas, I’m going to have to come to the realization that it’s not to be. The guy just has terminally poor judgment. So long, Owen. I wish I could say it’s been good to know ya.

This film had some potential as it ends up with a relatively good moral. In the hands of writers and directors with comedic talent and good taste, like Howard Hawks or Alan Dwan, it could have been entertaining and rewarding. Since it’s stuck with the Farrellys, it’s neither.